The privatization of immigrant detention centers can have detrimental consequences on the legal system and families. The use of private detention centers creates no incentive to end the mass detention of immigrants. Since private detention centers profit of the number of immigrants detained, there is less motivation to release detainees. Furthermore, immigrants are often kept in deplorable conditions within these detention centers. As a result, many immigrants mental health begins to deteriorate. This essay seeks to understand the micro and macro level effects that detention and deportation have on an undocumented immigrant’s family. Mental consequences of detention and deportation One of the micro level effects of privatized detention center …show more content…
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has stated that immigrant detention centers would increase revenues for ICE (Ackerman & Furman, 2013). According to the CEO of the GEO group, “‘… those people coming across the border and getting caught are going to have to be detained and that for me, at least I think, there's going to be enhanced opportunities for what we do” (Ackerman & Furman, 2013). Ultimately, the priority for private prisons is profit rather than safety. Private detention centers are tasked with maintaining safety while monitoring costs. Nevertheless, “cost controls come at the expense of quality” (Ackerman & Furman, 2013). Employees at detention centers often earn less than their counterparts and receive less training. Therefore, there is no incentive to maintain a quality environment. In addition, detainees at private prisons are at a greater risk for violent attacks than public prisoners (Ackerman & Furman, 2013). Since, immigrants are a vulnerable population, in detention centers they are at an increased risk for substance abuse and mental health issues. These risks are heightened by a lack of competent mental health specialist. In addition, many employees at for-profit detention centers receive substandard cultural sensitivity training (Ackerman & Furman, 2013. Consequently, employees can misinterpret the behaviors of detained immigrants …show more content…
Detention centers focus on profit rather than well-being. As a result, immigrants are forced to endure harsh conditions and cheap labor. In addition, many immigrants are detained miles away from their families. These conditions begin to take a toll on the immigrant’s psychological health. Instead of detaining undocumented immigrants, the government should find alternative means. Such as the use of ankle monitors for at-risk immigrants. The use of ankle monitors would reduce the number of family separations. In addition, the government would also have a means of locating each undocumented immigrant. Another method of improving immigrant conditions is governmental monitoring of private detention centers. For instance, the use of governmental monitoring would create guidelines for detention centers conduct. This creates a system of checks and balances. Furthermore, governmental monitoring ensures the fair and equal treatment of the immigrant
Land of the Unfree: Mass Incarceration and Its Unjust Effects on Those Subjected To It and American Taxpayers
Humans have a never ending thirst for a better life, and a better existence for themselves and those they hold dear. Jose Antonio Vargas was sent away from the Philippines by his mother hoping that he would be able to achieve a better life, and be happy. In “Outlaw: My Life in America as an Undocumented Immigrant” Vargas is able to find his better life and happiness in America but also fear and anxiety. Vargas gives us a look into the life of an illegal immigrant the good, the bad, their achievements and their constant struggles. Very much like Vargas my father immigrated to America, but legally in 1986.
Should prisons in the United States be for profit? How do for profit prisons benefit the United States? Would inmates rather be in private or public correctional centers? What kind of affects does this have on taxpayers? What are the pros and cons of profit prisons? These are many of the questions that are brought up when discussing for profit prison systems. There are different perspectives that can be taken when it comes to talking about for profit prisons. This paper will discuss some of the ways that the United States has started to become for profit and why it has happened. Finally, this paper will give an opinion of whether or not for profit prisons should be dominant over public facilities.
Ego is that which constitutes the essential identity of a human being. It is defined as the “I” or self of any person; a person that is able to think, feel, will, but perhaps most importantly- reason. The Palace of Corrective Detention has no guards and the locks are old. The convicted, or lack, thereof, do not ever try to escape. From the beginning, the government of Anthem perpetuates its ideology to its citizens. Because of this fact, the citizens never learn of what the Council forbids them to know. In essence, these criminals in the Palace of Corrective Detention are never able to conceive the notion or concept of escape. The people in the totalitarian world of Anthem have no ego- they cannot begin to fathom escape, for the true prison they are trapped in is their own mind. The prisoners are a manifestation of the fact that in the collectivist society, one cannot accomplish anything without the permission of another. The prisoners have been brought up by the system that controls them in the broadest sense. Hence, the prisoners are trapped within themselves. The Palace of Corrective Detention, to a certain extent, represents the mind of the prisoners. The binds that hold down the prisoners at the Palace of Corrective Detention are not physical restraints, but psychological ones.
Shapiro, David. Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration. Rep. New York: American Civil Liberties Union, 2011. Print.
When the school day came to an end, I would feel a nervous sensation as I waited to see if one of parents was standing on the other side of the school gate. From the conversations I heard amongst adults to the news I saw on TV, I knew that the possibility of never seeing my parents again existed. No one gave me a clear explanation of what was currently happening, but I was aware of one thing -- what the term “deportation” meant.
A private prison or for-profit prison, jail, or detention center is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. Private prison companies typically have contractual agreements with the governments that commit prisoners and then pay a per diem or monthly rate for each prisoner confined in that private facility. Private prisons have been part of the system for quite some years now, specifically for involvement in corrections. Private for-profit prison management started rising in the 1980s, they represented a qualitative shift in the relation between corrections and private business. The question is there really a difference between private and public facilities, since the two are suppose to be different when it comes t cost and efficiency, also are the private facilities being run as a correctional facility at all?
Some of who are being affected has no intellect that they are an illegal alien. The effects of the deportation system are unbelievable; children are left alone while there father and mother are torn from their homes. This is an emotional time for these children, considering they are too young to understand. "I didn’t know what to think. Just the thought of me going to back to a country I no longer known, and I have no real memory of… I just went through the moments (How to stop Deportation)." Deportation has been shown to cause families and someone's self, feelings of shame, and isolation. Immigrants live their lives in the United States with uncertainty, for on any given day they can be ripped out of their homes and sentenced to deportation with no legal representation. Their families will not be able to be reached and that causes insecurities. Living day by day with the unknown is very stressful and can take its toll on self-esteem and self-worth. The deportation system not only affects the families and friends of immigrants it also affects the economy; Because there is so much money spent on ICE and border control along with court and the deportation itself. That money can be used for education, livestock, crops, government assistance programs; The list goes on. “More than 46,000 parents of U.S. citizen children were deported in as little as 6 months in
The policies implemented by the United States to strengthen the border and enforce immigration policies have led to the abuse and profiling of undocumented immigrants. Undocumented immigrants live in constant fear of deportation and are subjected to multiple human rights violations as they are abused, exploited and discriminated against. Immigrants are racialized and stereotyped. The US government has passed laws that discriminate against undocumented immigrants, making it harder for them to live and survive in America. These laws are due to the perception that undocumented immigrants are a burden on the US economy, but on the contrary undocumented immigrants provide an economic benefit to the US, and due to the benefit they provide society
There are too many people incarcerated in the United States of America. The U.S. imprisons 724 people per 100,000. In absolute numbers United States has more of its citizens behind bars then do China or Russia combined. (Gallagher 2008). There are about thousand U.S. citizens that become incarcerated in the prison system in any given week. Many of the prisons are so crowded that they have converted the gymnasium into a massive housing unit. These massive housing units hold hundreds of prisoners inside small gymnasiums. The bunk beds are stacked four or five high with every available space reserved for the bunk beds. Even though the prisons are over double capacity they have not added one extra toilet or shower at any of the facilities. Because of this many of the prisoners report tha...
The study continues on to explain further ramifications, such as, physical effects. This shows some of the devastating effects the practice of administrative segregation has on inmates’ mental and physical well-being. Often, it is the mentally ill that are unfairly subject to this practice. “Mentally ill inmates may find themselves inappropriately placed in administrative segregation because of a lack of other suitable placements, protective custody reasons, or disruptive behavior related to their mental illness.” (O 'Keefe 125). Instead of providing safety to inmates and staff as the prison system claims administrative segregation is for, its main objective is social isolation. Which is one of the harmful elements of AS that makes it torture. Additionally, an annual report from the Canadian Government’s Office of the Correctional Investigator’s states, “close to one-third of reported self-injury incidents occurred in (federal prisons) segregation units”. Therefore, one can infer that the negative effects of AS are contradictory to providing safety to inmates. UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendéz proposed administrative segregation should be banned as the “isolation of inmates amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment or – in more severe cases – to torture.” The ramifications of administrative segregation amount to what is defined as torture by lawyer and human rights Juan Mendéz. Administrative segregation is an unconstitutional treatment of inmates and does not constitute the values of our society, or the dignity and humanity of all people. Which is contradictory to rehabilitating a person to be physically, socially and mentally restored for reintroduction into society. Its use in Canada’s prison system is unjustified, unethical, and ultimately,
Since 2000, a total of 15 have died in custody, according to the advocacy group’s records. Of those 15 of whom have passed while in custody many of those deaths were results of suicides of detainees who suffered serious mental health issues that were not properly addressed in custody. In Cleveland and Rousseau’s article Mental Health Impact of Detention they argue that the implications such as mandatory detention is associated with high levels of psychiatric symptoms, which increase with time in detention and tend to be aggravated frequently. In a study conducted in the United States, after a median detention of 5 months, 86% of detainees showed clinical levels of depression, 77% had clinical anxiety and 50% had clinical post-traumatic stress disorder. A few months later, the mental health of those who were still detained had continued to deteriorate. The curtailment of physical mobility through indefinite detentions alone is sufficient to cause depression but mental states are also aggravated by the fact that detainees have little ability to make international phone calls, access to their funds, and access to legal
Private prisons in the United States, came about in the early 1980s when the war on drugs resulted in a mass wave of inmates, which led to the lack of the prison system’s ability to hold a vast number of inmates. When the cost became too much for the government to handle, private sectors sought this as an opportunity to expand their businesses through the prison industry. Since the opening of private prisons, the number of prisons and inmates it can hold has grown over the last two decades. With the rising number of inmates, profits have also substantially grown along with the number of investors. But what eventually became a problem amongst the private prison industry was their “cost-saving” strategies, which have been in constant debate ever
This is because detention lacks sexual abuse prevention policies. These women who are in the detention centers are not dangerous, instead they are placed behind bars because of small crimes such as driving without a license or they are charged with the civil crime for violating immigration laws. Women are faced with the emotional burden of separation from their families. In 2009, Georgia enrolled in a program that permits the police to check the status of anyone that stops on suspicion of any crime or minor traffic violation. If the immigrant is arrested, then he/she can be held for some time while their fingerprints and papers are checked against a federal registry.
Firstly, in order to gain a better understanding of the problems that plague our correctional system we must fully understand the enormous overcrowding problem that exists in the majority of state and federal prisons. Since 1980 the prison population has quadrupled and only the numbers continue to rise (Schmalleger, 2012).To help reduce the overcrowding problem within our prisons, taxpayers have funded 102 new correctional facilities since 1980 (Shelden, 1999).... ... middle of paper ... ... Offenders that are incarcerated within the prison quickly find a group of people commonly associated with their ethnic groups to establish a rapport with.