This month, #NewJersey sued #GeoGroup for refusing to allow #state #health inspectors full access to its #DelaneyHall facility, in #Newark, where the state says detainees have staged hunger strikes to protest being fed spoiled or rotten food & not being given access to basic #hygiene products. Geo’s lawyers have said in court filings that only #ICE can grant state inspectors access to the facility [wrong, #Congress can too].​

#law #Trump #immigration #HumanRights #CivilRights #PrivatePrisons

As the #Trump admin has ramped up arrests of #immigrants, it has relied on #GeoGroup to help it significantly expand the nation’s capacity for holding #ICE detainees. Advocates for immigrants & some #state regulators say poor #oversight at many of these facilities has led to the mistreatment of migrants.

#law #Trump #immigration #HumanRights #CivilRights #PrivatePrisons #ForThePeopleByThePeople

Geo’s input in the new “standards”, which has not been previously reported, highlights the #ICE contractor’s influence over the agency that is both its #regulator &, corporate filings show, its biggest customer.

2 of the #Trump admin’s top #immigration ofcls — border czar #TomHoman & ICE’s acting director, #DavidVenturella — previously worked for #GeoGroup….

#law #Trump #HumanRights #CivilRights #PrivatePrisons #ForThePeopleByThePeople

#ICE standards are the key rules that #govern the conditions of #detention centers, where hundreds of thousands of people are held each year. The policies, which ICE enforces through its contracts with #private companies & local governments, cover a wide range of facility operations, including how body cavity searches must be conducted as well as when detainees should be placed into solitary confinement.

#law #Trump #immigration #HumanRights #CivilRights #PrivatePrisons

#GeoGroup maintains that the work is “voluntary” & that it operates the program at the direction of the #government.

Geo asked that #ICE remove lines saying contractors needed to follow state & local #laws around the treatment of detainees & that ICE amend language to support its #legal position in these cases…. The company also asked that the standards specify that detainees are not employees of the facilities where they work.

#law #Trump #immigration #HumanRights #CivilRights #PrivatePrisons