DETENTION: A DEATH SENTENCE?
At least 185 people have died in immigration detention since 2003, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began reporting on deaths to the public.
Medical neglect has contributed to many of these deaths.
New evidence has emerged of dangerously subpar medical care in United States immigration detention at a time when the Trump administration is seeking to increase its use.
In May 2017, we co-published a 103-page report with Human Rights Watch called: "Systemic Indifference: Dangerous & Substandard Medical Care in Immigration Detention."
The report reveals systemic failures, such as unreasonable delays in care and unqualified medical staff, that are likely to expose a record number of people to dangerous conditions under President Donald Trump’s ramped-up deportation and detention plans.
Watch Freedom for Immigrants' Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director Christina Fialho speak with Splinter News about why medical neglect in immigration detention is rampant.
METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS
The report is based on independent medical experts’ analyses of records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s own investigations into 18 deaths in detention from 2012 to 2015, and the medical records of 12 additional people from 10 privately and publicly operated facilities across the country.
Human Rights Watch also interviewed more than 90 people who are or were detained, as well as family members, attorneys, immigration advocates, and correctional health experts.
The medical experts agreed that substandard care was evident in 16 out of 18 deaths, and subpar care contributed to the deaths of at least 7 of these individuals.
The medical experts found numerous incidents of substandard and dangerous medical care, including:
Failure to follow up on symptoms that required attention
Medical personnel apparently practicing beyond the scope of their licenses and expertise
Severely inadequate mental health care
The misuse of solitary confinement for people with mental health conditions
Sluggish emergency responses
““From the evidence that I saw in the cases that I reviewed, we have a system that is broken for detainee health care, and adding more detainees to that system can only make it worse.””
mapping out detention deaths
As our interactive map of the 169 reported deaths between 2003 and May 2017 in immigration detention reveals, more people are dying at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona and the Houston Contract Detention Facility in Texas than any other facilities.
Both facilities are operated by the private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)/CoreCivic.
In addition, 9 people in immigration detention have been transferred to the Columbia Care Center in South Carolina where they died. The Columbia Care Center is run by Correct Care Solutions, and it is the only private detention healthcare facility in the United States.
Correct Care Solutions also runs the medical care unit at various immigration detention facilities across the country, such as the Adelanto Detention Facility, where three people died in 2017.
INDIVIDUALS' cases
Our report with Human Rights Watch found significant problems with medical care in both private and public facilities, underscoring that the problems with medical care are systemic.
These are a few recent headlines on the death of immigrants in detention.
Among the six people who have reportedly died at the Adelanto Detention Facility since 2011 was Raul Ernesto Morales-Ramos. Mr. Morales-Ramos died after delayed surgery to remove an abdominal mass. Experts concluded he likely had symptoms of cancer at least two years before he died. These symptoms were not addressed until a month before he died.
For example, Tiombe Carlos, detained at York County Prison in Pennsylvania, died of suicide after receiving “woefully inadequate mental health care.” Ms. Carlos also was placed in isolation for significant periods of time; the facility did not follow safeguards set by national detention standards.
Henry P., who was interviewed for the report, was detained at Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama. He experienced a range of ailments and was eventually diagnosed with stomach cancer. On several occasions, his records reveal that medical staff responded to his complaint in writing without actually seeing him, or delayed responding to serious symptoms for weeks. Experts found that there may have been unreasonable delays in diagnosing his cancer, but his records are seriously incomplete.
our recommendations
While our ultimate goal is to end immigration detention, we have a number of recommendations in the report that include specific ways to reform the monitoring system and the medical care contracting process as well as increase transparency of detention operations.
For example, Congress can appoint an Independent Medical Oversight Board to be comprised of medical doctors and advocates at the national level and encourage ICE and its contractors to begin implementing local medical oversight boards at individual detention facilities.
““The sheer number and consistency of cases involving inadequate medical care point to a crisis that warrants immediate action. The medical experts’ analyses confirm what we have been hearing from detained immigrants for years. It’s past time to put an end to the substandard medical practices that harm many people in immigration detention each year.” ”