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Monday, April 10th, 2017
Detainees at NWDC immigration prison revive hunger strike in response to abuse
Today at noon, over one hundred people being detained in the West Coast’s largest immigration prison in Tacoma — the Northwest Detention Center — launched a hunger strike in response to inhumane living conditions at the prison.
Detainees refusing their lunches circulated a letter of demand regarding violations of what most Washington residents would consider basic human rights.
A photograph of the letter urging participation in the strike (Courtesy of NWDC Resistance)
According to a statement issued by the NWDC Resistance (an activist group focused on fighting deportations and addressing inhumane detention conditions), detainees are seeking “more expedited hearings, improved quality of food, improved access to medical care, and lowering of exorbitant commissary prices.”
Detainees currently receive $1 a day for maintaining the prison and its services. Detainees are even denied this at times receiving, for example, a bag of chips for nights’ worth of work. Earlier this year, a People’s Tribunal held a hearing at the prison to better evaluate conditions. The tribunal found that detainees had no access to soap and clothing, that people have died in the prison from lack of medical care, people have died after deportation from the same lack of medical care, and that detainees are often exposed to hazardous chemicals in their work.
The NWDC is a for-profit prison owned by the GEO Group which has a record of mistreating its employees as well as its detainees.
Last autumn, GEO Group workers in Tacoma conducted an “informational strike” decrying the NWDC’s mandatory overtime, lack of sick days, and low wages.
The GEO Group has also come under fire for its immoral business practices in a federal lawsuit alleging horrific abuses at its Colorado detention center.
This is not the first time detainees have protested appalling, immoral conditions at NWDC. In 2014, six years into Barack Obama’s presidency, detainees at NWDC held an internationally-recognized hunger strike that lasted fifty-six days.
Three years later, detainees continue to assert their humanity in the face of greed and injustice. According to the NWDC Resistance, conditions are only getting worse now that the federal government is controlled by the right wing. The underlying problem is bigger than the partisan political climate, but impacted by it nonetheless.
Concerned residents and activists gathered around the facility at noon to show solidarity with the detainees. The NWDC Resistance’s announcement states: “We know from past hunger strikes that ICE and GEO are quick to retaliate, and we want the hunger strikers to know that they are not alone.”
NPI is strongly opposed to private prisons and supports efforts to transfer detainees and inmates to corrections facilities that are publicly owned and operated.
For those looking to join in solidarity with the strikers, the NWDC Resistance Facebook page offers news on the strike and support opportunities.
# Written by Kaylinne Shaffer :: 5:42 PM
Categories: Civil Liberties, Policy Topics
Tags: Criminal Justice, Naturalization
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