Hi there,

In this chaotic news cycle it may be tempting to tune out, but we hope you won’t—only an informed and engaged public can defend democracy. In these times of deep political polarization we need news that goes beyond play-by-play headlines, news that goes to the heart of each story by asking people to tell their own stories of abuses of power and injustice in their own words. If our journalism is important to you, please donate today. Thanks to a group of generous donors, all donations made today will be DOUBLED, which means your $15 gift is worth $30. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much.

Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

INS Issues New Standards for Treatment of Detainees

HeadlineJan 02, 2001

After scores of complaints and lawsuits concerning the physical and mental abuse of immigrants detained in county jails and other detention centers, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has issued national standards for the treatment of its detainees. The new standards, covering everything from visiting policies to grievance procedures, will be phased in this month at all detention centers administered by the immigration service. They will be phased in over the next two years at state and local jails that house immigration service detainees. But critics say the agency has fallen far short of that goal, especially in county jails in states like Louisiana, Texas, New Jersey and Florida, where detainees and their lawyers say prisoners are beaten, solitary confinement is imposed for trivial offenses, and water and food are often inadequate. Advocates for immigrants say conditions may not improve, even after the standards are in place, because they don’t have the weight of law and could prove impossible to enforce.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top