SPLC: Immigrant detention center denying detainees access to attorneys
A for-profit prison operator has denied immigrant detainees access to attorneys at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, one of the nation’s largest immigrant detention centers, the SPLC and a coalition of civil rights activists and legal experts told government officials today.
Corrections Corporation of America’s (CCA) contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requires the installation of a video teleconferencing system to allow attorneys to communicate with immigrants at the facility it operates in rural Lumpkin, 150 miles from Atlanta, but more than a year after the contract has taken effect, the system has yet to be installed. CCA has also failed to establish policies and practices at the detention center to ensure that detainees have access to their lawyers.
These failures are outlined in a letter sent by the group today to ICE, the Stewart County Commission and CCA.
“Detainees have the right to meet with their attorneys,” said Eunice Cho, SPLC staff attorney. “It is shameful that the failure by this for-profit company to comply with the terms of its contract has made it so difficult for them to access legal help. This has gone on too long.”
Detention center staff members have arbitrarily delayed or denied meetings between attorneys and clients. Officers and administrators also refuse to schedule attorney calls or appointments in advance, requiring attorneys to travel far for the chance to meet with clients – an opportunity they may still be denied, according to the letter. The detention center has the capacity to house more than 1,700 people.
CCA was also required to install a video teleconferencing system 60 days after its contract took effect to allow long-distance communication between attorneys and their clients. CCA’s contract took effect Sept. 29, 2014, but it has yet to install the equipment. When attorneys are allowed to meet with clients, they are expected to communicate from one side of a window through a phone line that has been broken for months.
“There’s no excuse for this situation,” said Lisa Graybill, deputy legal director at the SPLC. “ICE and Corrections Corporation of America must be held accountable for depriving these detainees of their rights.”
The letter was signed by more than two dozen groups, including the SPLC, the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association, the Association of Pro Bono Counsel, Pro Bono Counsel for Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan LLP, Columbia University Law School Immigrant Rights’ Clinic, and Tamara Serwer Caldas, pro bono partner, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton.
