Children Behind Bars in America
March 6th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
When I toured the T. Don Hutto children’s prison in Taylor last month, immigration authorities and their Corrections Corporation of America counterparts told us not to talk to the detainees. I think now I understand why.
There is simply no way to make the incarceration of children pretty. Especially when they are being housed for profit by a “corrections” company. Especially when they and their parents have committed no crime and in many cases are fleeing violence or persecution in their home countries. Especially when those kids testify over and over again to the horrible experience of being locked up in prison. At Hutto, detainees of all ages report:
- Kids spend 10-11 hours each day in a cell where they are not allowed to have toys or even crayons.
- Guards frequently threaten children with separation from their parents.
- Just like a “regular” prison, there’s no privacy in the cells. Kids have to go to the bathroom in front of their parents and vice versa, a deeply humiliating experience in some cultures.
- Sick children often do not receive prompt or adequate medical care.
- The food is unpalatable and foreign; meals last only 10-20 minutes. As a result, kids frequently undergo rapid weight loss.
The list goes on, but the net result is children who are depressed, confused and traumatized, not to mention parents whose role as primary caregivers is suddenly stripped. Just ask the kids. Among court documents related to the federal lawsuit against Homeland Security announced today are statements from some of the children-plaintiffs.
Bahja Ibrahim, 7, a Somalian girl seeking asylum along with her siblings and mother: “It is hard to be in here because no toys no good food no clean clothes. Everything is bad here.” Detained at Hutto since November 30, 2006.
Kevin Yourdkhani, 9, a Canadian citizen detained with his Iranian parents: “My bed here is small and cold; it makes my back hurt. I hit the wall and am right next to the toilet; it smells very bad. My mom has to use the bathroom right in front of me.” “I was in my bed and my dad came to fix my bed. When the police came and (saw) my dad in my room, he said if he comes and sees my dad again in my room he’s going to put my mom in a separate jail and my dad in a separate jail and me a foster kid. I cried and cried so much that I lost my energy and I went to sleep.” Detained since February 9.
Today at the press conference Matt Wright describes below, we heard from a couple of families who have actually been released from Hutto. Nixcari, a 9-year-old Honduran girl, said, “It was very hard for me because I didn’t see my sister. She’s in Honduras. And my father he abused my mother a lot. It was very difficult for me to be at Hutto because [of] the officials - there were some that were nice and some that were bad.” She added: “Sometimes when we were sick they didn’t give us medicine.”
Nixcari, her little sister, and her pregnant mother were released from Hutto last month after spending over three months behind bars. The mother, Denia, is eight-months-pregnant and will likely give birth to a U.S. citizen child. The family is seeking asylum from a violent father/husband in Honduras.
However this lawsuit plays out, the moral truth is clear and simple: Imprisoning children is wrong. If America can’t agree on that, then we truly have hardened our hearts.
March 9th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
I don’t see the logic. If they are illegals, send them back to where they came from. We don’t need to feed, clothe, and house other countries’ citizens. In all honesty, they are getting better treatment there than they would in their own country. Plain as that. Export them now. If they want to move here then let them seek American citizenship, then we will welcome them with open arms as U.S. citizens.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Most of the detainees at Hutto HAVE sought American citizenship; they are asylum seekers who have been denied and are incarcerated pending deportation. Most of them have sought refuge from impossible living situations in other countries. Why else would you give up everything you know and try to build a new life? Sandy, you have a lot to learn about your government. Ask why the US has more prisoners per capita than any other country, even the most repressive dictatorships. Ask why the private prison industry has suddenly become one of the most profitable ways to make a buck. Ask who was behind the “three strikes and you’re out” draconian sentencing legislation of twenty years ago. Ask who’s getting rich from the $95 per day per inmate that your tax dollars are ponying up at Hutto, and ask how much money an impoverished county is making by allowing this prison in its territory. Please try to learn a bit more about your subject before you “export” anyone.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Thank you for publicizing our own government’s response to people from other countries who recognize the potential for peace and happiness here and have the gall to take steps to attain it. We are not under a state of martial law . . . are we? And, are we really in such dire straits that we can no longer recognize as citizens those who are born on U.S. soil, and we can no longer treat their families like the families of U.S. citizens? When did this happen?
March 11th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
The point, of course, is in the last sentance. There is no morality in imprisoning children. Would this place be suitable for your own children? Why then these children? They have committed no crime. You cannot just write them off with the word ‘illegal’. They and their parents got here legally with visas and passports. They became ‘illegal’ when their visas expired before their appeals for sanctuary were dealt with by the courts. Suffer the little children ……
March 12th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Unfortunately, our media have substituted labels and simplistic ignorance for public information about immigration. “Simple as that,” say our politicians. “They are illegals,” say people who get their understanding of immigration from television news. But in fact “illegals” is not a useful term, since it includes people who have violated the law and also people like many of the families in the T. Don Hutto Frauenlager, who have carefully done everything possible to comply with the law. So why don’t these prisoners just become citizens? Alas, again popular mythology replaces reality. It is no easy matter to become a citizen. It is true that many of the jailed children, especially those from Palestine, are better off in prison in Taylor, Texas than they would be on the streets of their home towns, where the Israeli occupation troops are murdering them. But what kind of person would want to send them back in these circumstances? Furthermore, in the current climate of xenophobia created by Bush and Chertoff, the U.S. government is busily trying to strip native born U.S. citizens of their citizenship, simply because they are Hispanic. I hope the Texas observer will follow up on the story. Hispanic citizenship stripping has been the topic of various lawsuits in the last couple of years.
John Wheat Gibson, Sr., Immigration Lawyer
June 11th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Why have God’s little children been forgotten?
I can’t nor will I accept the thought of children being incarcerated. Prison is horrible enough without having to torment & traumatize innocent children.
These children & their families only want a better life
and we must do something to stop this nonsense.
Why is this not featured on the front pages of all newspapers, etc.
November 12th, 2007 at 12:11 am
Interesting
how after this “horrible” experience they still want asylum in this country.