> Published Saturday, April 22, 2000, in the Miami Herald
>
> U.S.: Rights of foreign detainees violated
>
> Reforms ordered at state jail
>
> ANDRES VIGLUCCI
> aviglucci at herald.com
>
> Conditions at a Panhandle jail where immigration detainees complained of
> being shocked with electric stun shields are so woeful that they violate
> the civil rights of inmates, the U.S. Department ofJustice has concluded.
>
> In a bluntly worded 18-page letter to Jackson County administrators, the
> department's civil-rights division said an investigation prompted by the
> detainees' complaints uncovered numerous violations
> at the jail, including medical care so poor that it endangered lives and a
> routine practice of shackling prisoners face down on concrete beds for
> hours at the risk of asphyxiation.
>
> The report does not address the immigration detainees' most alarming
> allegation -- that they were shocked with riot-control devices while
> shackled to the concrete platforms. The Immigration and
> Naturalization Service removed all 34 of its detainees from the 300-bed
> Marianna jail and stopped using the facility after their allegations first
> surfaced nearly two years ago.
>
> But government civil-rights investigators did find indiscriminate use of
> the electric shields and the
> concrete beds -- which are meant for use only as a last resort -- on
> detainees and regular inmates alike.
>
> ``Facility staff engage in excessive and unwarranted use of restraints to
> control inmates, causing
> serious risk of bodily harm,'' wrote Bill Lann Lee, acting assistant
> attorney general for civil rights.
>
> The letter also criticizes the jail for its treatment of juvenile
> offenders, saying they are denied required exercise and education.
>
> The report also found that fire-safety measures and training at the jail
> are inadequate, and that
> access to legal materials for inmates is so limited as to constitute a
> violation of their right to the courts.
>
> While thanking county officials for their assistance during the
> investigation, Lee said his agency
> would sue the county for the violations if it could not ``resolve this
> matter by working cooperatively with you.''
>
> Jackson County officials did not return calls seeking comment Friday. In
> the past, they have defended their jail as a modern and well-run facility.
>
> HARSH CRITICISM
>
> The INS's use of county jails across the country to house growing numbers
> of detainees awaiting
> deportation hearings has come under harsh criticism from advocates who
> allege they are often subjected to inhumane treatment.
>
> The INS is now working to develop uniform standards to ensure adequate
> conditions in a broad
> range of areas at the local jails it contracts with, including medical
> care, employee training, food, and access to lawyers, media and relatives,
> said Russ Bergeron, an agency spokesman in Washington, D.C.
>
> ``It's a complex issue, but we're trying to move as expeditiously as
> possible,'' Bergeron said.
>
> The Jackson County jail became a prime exhibit in support of advocates'
> contentions of mistreatment when 17 immigration detainees gave sworn
> statements to a Miami group describing
> numerous examples of racial and ethnic taunts and physical abuse.
>
> Human-rights advocates complained about the slow pace of the federal
> investigation, but one activist said Friday that she was pleasantly
> surprised by the government's letter.
>
> CRITICAL RESULTS
>
> ``Usually we don't get results, much less results so critical of the
> institution being investigated,'' said
> Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center
> in Miami, which first publicized the Jackson detainees' complaints.
> ``I think that's a hopeful sign. I hope it would alert INS
> of the need to effectively monitor conditions in all of these jails.''
>
> Although the allegations of physical abuse at Jackson were ``extreme,''
> other complaints of the type
> uncovered by the government at the jail are common at other local lockups
> used by the INS, Little said.
>
> Among the most serious violations at the Jackson County jail, according to
> the letter, is a system of
> medical care so deficient that nursing staff often ignore even serious
> health complaints such a chest pains.
>
> The jail's lone physician exercises insufficient supervision, leaving
> nurses to make medical decision for which they are unqualified.
> The result is that patients are often denied medications they need, or
> given medications without the required monitoring.
>
> ``Several files that we reviewed revealed poor decisions by the nursing
> staff that could lead to injury or death,'' the letter said.
>
> CARE DENIED
>
> In some cases, the unnamed physician denied care to patients who could not
> pay for it even though he is required by law to provide it, according to
> the letter.
>
> Jail officers also frequently ignore procedures to handle medical
> emergencies. In one case, an
> officer found that an inmate who reported chest pains had elevated blood
> pressure, ``but merely gave the inmate antacids.''
>
> There is no infection control program at the facility, placing inmates at
> a high risk for tuberculosis,
> and tests and treatments for chronic conditions such as diabetes and HIV
> infection are not provided.
>
> The report blamed lack of training and strains caused by thin staffing and
> mandated overtime for the
> use of excessive force to subdue troublesome inmates and detainees,
> including the routine application of Plexiglass stun shields that are
> supposed to be used only as a last resort.
>
> ``When the shield is activated, a startling blue arc of electricity may be
> seen at various points on its face,'' the letter said.
> ``The most severe use of the shield is activating it and placing it in
> contact with the inmate's body, which causes most individuals to lose muscle
> control and collapse.''
>
> LESS USE
>
> Since January 1999, the letter says, the shields appear to have been used
> less. But ``in a number of
> instances'' before that, the shields were used as a first resort, which
> the report labels as ``unreasonable.''
>
> The shields can endanger inmates with heart disease and epilepsy, among
> other illnesses, but inmates were not screened before the shields were
> used on them. In one case, the report notes, a
> woman who was nine months pregnant was threatened with a shield, though it
> was not used on her. The shields are not considered safe for use on
> pregnant women.