During last months fifth annual "Shut Down the Stewart Detention Center" rally I very briefly spoke about a transgendered detainee at Corrections Corporation of America's (CCA) Stewart Detention Center (SDC) who was locked down in the facilities segregated housing unit. When I spoke at the rally I had no idea of the human rights abuses that had also been committed at CCA's Eloy Detention Center against a transgendered immigrant being detained there.
It's interesting to me that both detainees were held in a segregated housing unit setting. In the case of the transgendered detainee being held at the Stewart Detention Center I know for a fact that she was locked down in a segregated housing unit cell for a very prolonged period of time for no offense other than her lifestyle. Let there be no doubt that this happened as I was present and a witness to the events that took place. Knowing what I personally observed as having happened at CCA's Stewart Detention Center I can not help but wonder if this was also to a certain extent the same thing that was going on at CCA's Eloy Detention facility. If this is what is actually going on here then that would mean that Corrections Corporation of America is in effect locking transgendered detainees up in segregated housing unit's for no offense other than leading an alternative lifestyle.
Legally even in Detention facilities and prisons hearings must take place if detainees are deprived of rights and placed in disciplinary confinement for extended periods of time. Usually some sort of rule violation or crime is required to of happened. I'm very much aware of the pattern of abuse in disciplinary and confinement hearings that took place at CCA's Stewart Detention Center. It would be very interesting to see just what basis CCA used to lock these individuals up in the most restrictive and confining of available housing units. Is this yet another example of the abusive disciplinary procedures that are or were in effect at the Stewart Detention Center? Is being transgendered a confinable "crime" or disciplinary offence in CCA ran facilities?
As we discussed in yesterdays post proper supervision of detainees would in effect mean that personal lifestyles would probably not matter to the degree that they apparently did at one (or more) CCA for-profit run Detention Centers. Transgendered individuals in the United States are a very small minority group and yet these individuals manage to have a place in many other government controlled or influenced settings. Some local schools have dealt with transgendered students and as far as i'm aware it's not acceptable for these schools to just lock them away from other students in an in-school detention room. I also can't imagine a US city in current times that would task it's police department with rounding up all the transgender individuals to some sort of local transgendered internment camp. With this in mind I have to ask myself what makes it acceptable for Corrections Corporation of America to apparently behave this way? I guess if CCA is unable to adequately supervise and provide for the safety of transgendered individuals then perhaps it needs to stop taking taxpayer money for detaining them.
All opinions expressed here are just that. Please cross check anything you read before forming your own opinion.
Shining a light on Corrections Corporation of America's (CCA) Stewart Detention Center
