City of Immigrants Fills Jail Cells With Its Own
"Leaning on Jail, City of Immigrants Immigrants Fills Cells With Its Own"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/us/27detain.html
The above article is about the small, densely populated, and mostly Latino city where I grew up. The cities of Central Falls, Pawtucket, and Providence in Rhode Island make up most of the state's urban area.
They could not find enough inmates from other places, so, hey, why not lock up the people in the city itself! See the video, these jails even have a name for the rush to lock up immigrants in order to fill up beds and obtain the perverse economic benefits of the private prison industry: "The Immigrant Goldrush." All vicious endeavors have pretty slogans. It isn't enough that the children play little league baseball and pop warner football in the long shadow of this prison, but now they lock up their parents as well. Yes, the law must be respected, but this stinks of stepped up selective enforcement because beds were not filled to meet a "for-profit" projection compounded by a Governor who in his neglect of the state's economy found in undocumented workers the most resonant scapegoats. Ironically, the scapegoats are more likely to be engines of economic growth rather than drain--Broad St., Central Falls or Broad St., Providence easily ring a bell. However, until comprehensive immigration reform is enacted, supporters of these efforts cans easily point to "the law" during those often repeated times in history when some group needs to be blamed for whatever the current pressing problem may be. Still, the bad faith showed by officials in summarily detaining people, shipping them across the country, or in holding them in secret is not justifiable by any reference to current law.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/
The above article is about the small, densely populated, and mostly Latino city where I grew up. The cities of Central Falls, Pawtucket, and Providence in Rhode Island make up most of the state's urban area.
They could not find enough inmates from other places, so, hey, why not lock up the people in the city itself! See the video, these jails even have a name for the rush to lock up immigrants in order to fill up beds and obtain the perverse economic benefits of the private prison industry: "The Immigrant Goldrush." All vicious endeavors have pretty slogans. It isn't enough that the children play little league baseball and pop warner football in the long shadow of this prison, but now they lock up their parents as well. Yes, the law must be respected, but this stinks of stepped up selective enforcement because beds were not filled to meet a "for-profit" projection compounded by a Governor who in his neglect of the state's economy found in undocumented workers the most resonant scapegoats. Ironically, the scapegoats are more likely to be engines of economic growth rather than drain--Broad St., Central Falls or Broad St., Providence easily ring a bell. However, until comprehensive immigration reform is enacted, supporters of these efforts cans easily point to "the law" during those often repeated times in history when some group needs to be blamed for whatever the current pressing problem may be. Still, the bad faith showed by officials in summarily detaining people, shipping them across the country, or in holding them in secret is not justifiable by any reference to current law.
Post a Comment