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U.S. Army Vet Placed in Solitary Confinement After Protest Bid at Immigration Jail

HeadlineMar 28, 2014

A U.S. Army veteran imprisoned at an immigration detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, says he has been placed in solitary confinement after calling for a work stoppage among prisoners. The Northwest Detention Center is owned by the for-profit GEO Group. Hassall Moses says he tried to type up a letter calling for fellow prisoners to protest by halting work, but the letter was intercepted, and he was placed in solitary confinement. Moses spoke in an audio recording made by an attorney.

Hassall Moses: “Basically, this facility is run by detainees. And if we everybody stopped working, then we could negotiate like the pay raise, because right now everybody’s working for a dollar. You know, we can negotiate. We could talk about the quality of the food, the living conditions.”

Immigrants at the prison are in their third week of a hunger strike for better conditions and an end to record deportations.

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