The people of Evanston should look beyond their noses

Didn’t Wyoming learn it’s lesson with Heart Mountain? Remember the last time a prison camp was built in Wyoming to house people of color? Didn’t we grow up with the shame of what had been done there? Isn’t Wyoming better than that?

An energetic group organizing under the slogan ##WyoSayNo, believes Wyoming is better. This week they launched a campaign to stop the construction of a private, for-profit immigrant prison in Evanston. Believing it will be as big a stain on the Equality State as Heart Mountain, they are educating Wyoming people about the prison and why it is an affront to Equality State values.

One of their chief concerns is the track record of similar facilities around the U.S. An NPR report disclosed findings by the Inspector General’s Office of the Department of Homeland Security echoing the concerns of outside watchdog and human rights organizations.

Keep in mind detainees are not to be held in “criminal” custody. The offense for which they are detained is civil. Custody is not supposed to be punitive, which renders these findings all the more egregious.

Findings include human rights violations such as strip searches, lack of timely medical care, insufficient hygiene supplies, unsanitary bathrooms and unsafe living conditions, improper use of solitary confinement and more. The federal government’s findings are similar to those of the Southern Poverty Law center. 

SPLC’s website includes a report exposing the abuses in private immigrant prisons such as the one proposed for Evanston. It said, “an investigation of immigrant detention centers in the South has found that detainees are routinely denied their due process rights and frequently endure inhumane conditions in isolated facilities that have little oversight from the federal government.”

The company planning the Wyoming prison has an alarm-raising track record. The Casper Star-Tribune reported that Management and Training Corporation has been at the center of allegations of abusing detainees, tainted food, understaffing, failing to maintain sanitary facilities, and discrimination against employees.

An ACLU review of MTC’s private, for-profit facility in Otero County, New Mexico, determined detainees reported a lack of food, excessive waits for medical care and difficulty in obtaining necessary prescription medicines, as well as fear of retaliation if they complained accompanied by physical abuse by guards. Make no mistake, “private” means little supervision and “for profit” means taking shortcuts.

This is not the kind of corporate citizen we want in our state. But, the politicians in Evanston say they are willing to overlook these “flaws.” 

MTC couldn’t find a much more isolated site than Evanston or more malleable overseers. All the better to avoid too much regulatory scrutiny. All the better to maximize profits on the backs of human beings.

Uinta County Commissioners ignore the human costs in favor of whatever economic gain may materialize. Communities surrounding Auschwitz likely felt much the same in that day. The resolution passed by the commissioners touts the “aesthetically pleasing design” of the MTC prison. The commissioners believe the prison will bring “significant tax revenue,” and “well-paying jobs” both during construction and after.

The people of Evanston should look beyond their noses. The need for this prison did not exist before Trump was elected President. The need will vanish when he is gone.

America will find its way to a more just immigration policy. That policy will likely not revolve around herding thousands of people into massive for-profit, private prisons.  It may not be long after the construction of the facility is completed before it is boarded up and employees are walking the streets without jobs.

Uinta County’s commissioners should Google “MTC Raymondville, Texas.” They’d learn what happened when hundreds of those “well-paying jobs” at another MTC immigrant prison were lost because of allegations that, “The Level of human suffering (at the MTC prison) was unbelievable.” (http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-immigrant-detention-20170214-story.html)

Liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, people of every faith community, business and academic leaders and other thoughtful citizens should be able to agree. Wyoming is better than this. Here’s one last chance to prove it. ##WyoSayNo