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Report alleges immigrant detainees in Georgia given food with worms, painkillers for broken bones
ICE uses the Performance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS) to set guidelines for detention centers. By PBNDS standards, detained immigrants should have “nutritionally balanced” food, clean water, access to legal representatives, and access to phones.
But the report’s authors found that detention facility officers rarely followed those guidelines.
Detention center staff members often gave painkillers to immigrant detainees for medical treatment, regardless of the severity of the symptoms. Detainees who complained of growing inches-long bumps on their legs were given ibuprofen, as were people with broken bones.
“If you need any actual medical assistance, you have to sign up at 5 a.m. that morning, and if you’re late, you have to wait until the next day,” a Honduran immigrant told researchers in an interview. “Major medical needs take ten to fifteen days to address.”
Meals were provided at unpredictable hours, with the daily meal schedule leaving seven or more hours between lunch and dinner, the report found. Foreign objects like hair, plastic, bugs, rocks, a tooth, and mice were recurring objects found in the food. And the meals— which was based on a diet of potatoes, white rice, or bread — posed problems for immigrants with diabetes and others with special needs.
“I found a worm in the ground beef once,” a detained immigrant recalled to researchers about his experiences at Stewart. “On top of all of that, the water smells like feces and the showers are covered in mold.”
“Once, for a whole week, we were fed beans that had maggots growing in them,” a detained immigrant from Honduras said.
Researchers additionally found no mental health doctors on staff, with detainees too scared to complain about mental issues because they didn’t want to be put in segregated units. Researchers alleged people who had serious mental afflictions were “given pills and then are placed in handcuffs and helmets and put in segregation, a practice discouraged by ICE, the DOJ [Department of Justice], and human rights standards.”
https://thinkprogress.org/amp/p/2804e7d99b80
But the report’s authors found that detention facility officers rarely followed those guidelines.
Detention center staff members often gave painkillers to immigrant detainees for medical treatment, regardless of the severity of the symptoms. Detainees who complained of growing inches-long bumps on their legs were given ibuprofen, as were people with broken bones.
“If you need any actual medical assistance, you have to sign up at 5 a.m. that morning, and if you’re late, you have to wait until the next day,” a Honduran immigrant told researchers in an interview. “Major medical needs take ten to fifteen days to address.”
Meals were provided at unpredictable hours, with the daily meal schedule leaving seven or more hours between lunch and dinner, the report found. Foreign objects like hair, plastic, bugs, rocks, a tooth, and mice were recurring objects found in the food. And the meals— which was based on a diet of potatoes, white rice, or bread — posed problems for immigrants with diabetes and others with special needs.
“I found a worm in the ground beef once,” a detained immigrant recalled to researchers about his experiences at Stewart. “On top of all of that, the water smells like feces and the showers are covered in mold.”
“Once, for a whole week, we were fed beans that had maggots growing in them,” a detained immigrant from Honduras said.
Researchers additionally found no mental health doctors on staff, with detainees too scared to complain about mental issues because they didn’t want to be put in segregated units. Researchers alleged people who had serious mental afflictions were “given pills and then are placed in handcuffs and helmets and put in segregation, a practice discouraged by ICE, the DOJ [Department of Justice], and human rights standards.”
https://thinkprogress.org/amp/p/2804e7d99b80
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Sounds like medieval prisons 
