Tacoma SDS

A critical overview of the development and expansion of GEO Group's immigrant detention center in Tacoma, Washington by Tim Smith.

Activists protest in front of Northwest Detention Center on Feb. 13. lashing out at the legal limbo those locked up inside of it face, protesters demonstrated outside of Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) on Feb. 13. Activists object to facility conditions, and rally on the second Saturday of each month at noon. Food and beverages are provided to detainee visitors, while protestors picket the facility and provide information about NWDC to the public.

This is a link to the companion slideshow for the 4-Part KUOW Radio Special Between Worlds/Behind Bars airing next week. Transcipts available too.

The slideshow reveals for the first time a complete internal diagram of the Northwest Detention Center.

From the dark days of the Chinese Exclusion Act to post–September 11 crackdowns on undocumented immigrants, immigration detention has a controversial history in both our nation and in the Puget Sound region. "Between Worlds / Behind Bars" is a four–part series exploring immigration detention from its roots in the 1930s at "Seattle's Ellis Island" in the International District to today's privately–run Northwest Detention Center on the Tacoma Tideflats.

After nearly a year of reporting and production, our radio series on immigration, detention, and deportation in Washington State is airing this month. For those of you in Seattle, tune in to KUOW 94.9 during Morning Edition the week of February 22nd to catch this four-part series.

And for everyone else, we'll post a link to the series as soon as it's online.

Happy listening!

Silence has long shrouded the men and women who die in the nation’s immigration jails. For years, they went uncounted and unnamed in the public record. Even in 2008, when The New York Times obtained and published a federal government list of such deaths, few facts were available about who these people were and how they died.

But behind the scenes, it is now clear, the deaths had already generated thousands of pages of government documents, including scathing investigative reports that were kept under wraps, and a trail of confidential memos and BlackBerry messages that show officials working to stymie outside inquiry.

Some form of contagious disease is causing enhanced precautions at the Northeest Detention Center located on the Tacoma Tarpits Superfund site. Over the weekend, visiting families, some coming from as far away as Portland, were turned away and told that an outbreak of a flu-like disease was on-going.

Even though the persons they were coming to visit were not ill, they were still prevented from visiting.

The following expose of the riots at the GEO Group Inc private prison in Pecos Texas, provides insight onto the failure of the private prison industry. A similar riot occured at the GEO run NWDC in Tacoma, Wa on 10 Aug 2009 when detainees complained about poor food conditions. The kitchen had been closed as part of an ongoing $40 million expansion and basic food quality deteriorated. At the same time, GEO Group raised prices in the commissary. The disturbance was put down by GEO guards using OC spray, impact rounds, and rubber stinger bullets fired from 37mm grenade launchers.

Sat., Sept. 12. 12noon-3pm.NW Detention Center-- 1623 E. J St., Tacoma WA 98421

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_detention_pepper_spray.html?sou...

Guards use pepper spray on immigrant detainees
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE -- Federal officials say guards from the private company that runs the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma used pepper spray to control immigrant detainees who were refusing to follow orders.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lorie Dankers says detainees weren't responding to orders Sunday night to go to bed.