Human Warehouse

Empty the cages.

Kenneth Lipp
Jul 20, 2017 · 2 min read

I’ve written about Etowah County Detention Center and its contract to hold ICE detainees, and will be writing more soon — this post is for public information, an announcement of an event tomorrow night at 7:30 at the facility. It’s part of a national call to action, Resistance Outside and Behind Bars.

Local activists at Shutdown Etowah along with other immigrant advocacy organizations will congregate on Forrest Avenue in Gadsden to bring light to the darkness.

A brief overview (paraphrased from a briefing provided by attorney Jessica Vosburgh of the Adelante Worker Center and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network):

A small but powerful group of people has been able to maintain Etowah County Detention Center’s contract with ICE despite the facility’s egregious human rights record.

Unconstitutionally prolonged detention and subhuman treatment with respect to nutrition, physical safety, health and well being, medical care, visitation, and access to counsel and services have become the norm at Etowah. A lack of transparency on the part of both county officials and ICE and a failed ICE inspections process cloak these abuses from public scrutiny.

1. Etowah is ICE’s warehouse for prolonged detention and isolation

2. Detainees’ basic nutritional needs are going unmet

3. Etowah officials deny detainees access to essential medical care

4. Etowah detainees never get to go outside

5. Etowah fails to protect the detainees in its care; Detainees are subject to physical violence and verbal abuse

6. The lack of transparency and accountability at Etowah, coupled with widespread retaliation against detainees, cloaks abuses and creates a climate of fear and impunity

I’ll tweet from the event tomorrow.

See Shutdown Etowah’s website for more information.

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Kenneth Lipp

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Journalist. Covert surveillance, law enforcement, federal courts, local tabloid fodder. Respondeat superior. If it can be destroyed by the truth it should be.

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