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.
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