Thank you!

A big "Thank you" goes out to everyone who turned out for last night's talk. It was extremely interesting and enlightening to hear everyone's ideas and perspectives on the Northwest Detention Center as well as solutions. Special thanks goes out to Collin Veenstra for arranging to have speaker Tim Smith come out and talk to the class.

Contact

Got information? Want to ask questions? Contact us at

nwestdetentioncentercritique@gmail.com

We'll get back to you ASAP!

Northwest Detention Center Media Critique Forum

The NWDCMC now has a forum located at:

http://nwestmediacritique.freeforums.org/

Work is on-going, but the forums are live.

Thanks.

Today's the Day!

Just a reminder, the NWDC Media Critique talk will be going on today in Jones Hall, room 203 at the University of Puget Sound. The event starts at 4:00 and is project to go until 6:00pm, so get there early for a good seat!

Can't wait to see everyone there!

Blog Roll

The blog roll, which should really be called a link list contains some excellent information from local and national groups that deal with immigration issues as well as a link to the GEO Group's profile of the detention center.
You can find everything on the right hand side of the page.

Share the facebook event with your friends!

You can find the facebook event for the presentation Here.

Featured in the University of Puget Sound Trail

Hey everyone, we're featured in the 12/10/10 issue of the Puget Sound Trail. For those of you who don't know, the PS Trail is the school's premiere news source (outside of likealittle of course) for U of Puget Sound information. The article, by student-journalist David Skolnik, is extremely well written and touches on a number of the issues that will be addressed during the discussion!

From the article:

"What do you picture when you think of the Tacoma tide flats? Whatever comes to mind, you probably do not imagine a facility detaining over 1,000 suspected immigrants.
If you are surprised to learn that the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) exists just five miles from campus, you are not alone. Many Tacoma residents are also unaware of this well-kept secret.
The NWDC, which opened in 2004, was built to accommodate overflow of undocumented immigrants sent to a Seattle-area detention center. Increased crackdown on immigration was a result of the Department of Homeland Security seeking to detain any immigrants without proper documentation following 9/11 because these immigrants were viewed as a threat.
The NWDC is owned by the GEO Group, a private company that profits off of prisons on four different continents (North America, Europe, Africa, and Australia).
In recent years, the GEO Group has been involved in some controversies that have sparked the interest of activists. Civil rights violations have been cited in multiple campaigns and court cases against the GEO Group across the country, from accusations of meager and sometimes rotten food rations to lack of proper medical care.
The center in Tacoma is no less controversial. In 2008, a NWDC official pleaded guilty to falsifying documents to cover up a lack of background searches on almost 100 guards employed at the detention center."

Read the whole article here.

Just a reminder, the talk on the Northwest Detention Center will be taking place 12/16/2010 in Jones Hall room 203 at the University of Puget Sound. The talk will feature students from the University of Puget Sound leading and facilitating a discussion of the prison as speaker Tim Smith from the Bill of Rights Defense Committee who has several years of experience under his belt working to bring the NWDC to light.


The event will take place between 4:00 and 6:00pm.


Hope to see everyone there!

Click on poster for larger, printable version!

About Us and Posters

Click on poster for larger, printable version!



About Us:

The Northwest Detention Center Media Critique is the result of a semester's worth of studying the role of the media in framing issues concerning diversity. The goal of the project is to take a critical look at one of Tacoma's dirty little secrets, the privately-owned Northwest Detention center. Owned by the multi-national GEO Group NW Detention center is used by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) as a holding pen for approximately 1000 prisoners, most of which are undocumented immigrants or people jailed on similar charges. In recent years, allegations of civil rights abuses have surfaced at the facility. With little coverage by the mainstream media or Tacoma News Tribune, this project aims to bring the prison out of the shadows and into the glaring light of public dialogue. With the University of Puget Sound's history of being committed to social justice and community involvement, we of the Communications 370 class view this to be a project worthy of our time and mental exertion.

This blog will hopefully serve as a place at which people can field and communicate different ideas pertaining to a more open and transparent assessment of the NWDC.