Guillermo Gomez-Sanchez is a 50-year-old legal resident with a mental disability. In 2004, Gomez was detained because of a dispute at a grocery store over a bag of tomatoes. His detention led him into a labyrinth of abuse and neglect – in an immigration system that increasingly puts profit over justice by handing the reigns to private prison corporations.
Cuéntame’s Immigrants For Sale campaign has documented the case of Guillermo, who got lost in this system, while his mother Dolores Gomez-Sanchez spent years desperately searching for answers. The problem: Guillermo was sent to a private detention facility operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).
Dolores approached immigration authorities, but time and again was told that because Guillermo was in a CCA facility his case was no longer their problem. At one point the only information immigration officials could offer her was that Guillermo was beaten by guards and hospitalized after requesting to use a bathroom.
Private prison corporations like CCA do not care who and how they lock immigrants up. At a rate of up to $200 per inmate per night, this is the “perfect” money scheme. As such, CCA failed to report Guillermo’s condition – why should they? The longer Guillermo was locked up the more money in their coffers. Guillermo spent two years in CCA’s detention center. At average contract rates, the operator pocketed an estimated $90,000 off of his incarceration.
Israeli troops shot at a car in the occupied West Bank, killing a 7-month-old Palestinian baby...
Palestine casualty count: Over the last 24 hours, 11 Palestinians were killed and 32 injured in...
The Department of Justice’s civil rights division was once known as the crown jewel of the...
Pro-Palestinian activists have launched a new campaign at the port of Gioia Tauro in southern Italy...
