OTIS R. TAYLOR JR. Backlash after ICE inmates speak out
Things are looking worse at the West County Detention Facility in Richmond. This week, I read a copy of a letter signed by 27 female inmates at the jail saying that they were being treated poorly because of their immigration status. That letter was dated in September — before Contra Costa County sheriff ’s deputies who run the jail say they heard there were problems.
Meanwhile, inmates, their attorneys and jail monitors say that since the detainees spoke out about the conditions, their treatment from some jail staffers has gotten worse.
The letter signed by the 27 inmates was sent to Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement, or CIVIC, a San Francisco group that monitors jails where immigrants are detained.
In the letter, the women say that jail staff doesn’t give them access to classroom learning materials that they readily give nonimmigrant inmates. The letter also told of immigrant detainees being kept locked up for hours and told to use bags in their cells when they need to go to the bathroom.
The letter was handwritten by Nancy Mayer, a 40-yearold native of Mexico.
“When we are on lockdown and a county inmate needs to use the restroom, she is unlocked so that she can use it,”
Mayer wrote. “When an ICE inmate asks, we are always told to either hold it, or to use a ‘red bag’ — Bio Hazard Bag. This is unacceptable.”
The fact that these women were complaining as far back as September raises the question of how sheriff ’s officials didn’t know this was happening.
And get this: Since The Chronicle reported the allegations on Nov. 2, the conditions have deteriorated for the detainees, according to attorneys and jail monitors I’ve spoken to. Detainees who signed permission forms to be interviewed and photographed by The Chronicle when I visited the jail Oct. 31 say they have been singled out by guards who have withheld soap and shampoo and have not allowed them to brush their teeth after meals.
They’re the women who made the startling allegations of being denied access to the bathrooms and sufficient health care. Instead of being interviewed as part of an internal investigation, the women are being punished.
“Because they’re advocating for the humanity of those detained with them, they’re being subjected to practices that the prison system has always used,” said Rebecca Merton, CIVIC’s national visitation coordinator, referring to long periods of confinement. “This isn’t an issue of misconduct of just a few individual jail guards. It’s clear that the whole system is a machine of oppression.”
One detainee, who requested that her name not be published, told me in a phone call from the jail this week that detainees must stay in their cells all day even if their doors are unlocked. And to use the restroom, they have to be escorted.
Sheriff ’s officials have denied allegations of mistreatment and say inmates can typically leave their cells to use bathrooms and take classes.
But there’s been one small change: The inmate who called this week said that some of the guards haven’t been making the detainees wait as long as before — up to 23 hours — to use the bathroom. Still, they must wait hours after making a request to go.
Contra Costa County has a $6 million-a-year contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to run a federal detention center at the Richmond jail, housing male and female
“This isn’t an issue of misconduct of just a few individual jail guards. It’s clear that the whole system is a machine of oppression.” Rebecca Merton, Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement national visitation coordinator
ICE detainees for the feds.
But the complaints raise serious questions about oversight and accountability at the jail.
Several elected leaders have said they are appalled at the allegations. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, has scheduled a Nov. 27 tour of the jail. And state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, sent a letter to state Attorney General Xavier Becerra urging his office to immediately look into the conditions at West County.
So far, there’s no indication Becerra is going to take any action — and that’s a mistake on his part. Skinner reminded him in the letter that the Legislature provided his office with an extra $1 million this year to look at ICE detention centers.
“The allegations in this story are concerning,” the attorney general’s press office said in a statement. “As part of the California Department of Justice’s review of immigration detention facilities, we intend to look into issues like this and gain a better understanding of the conditions in these facilities.”
That’s weak. Women — mothers, daughters, wives, sisters and friends — are sounding the alarm about inhumane conditions at a jail. What will it take to get somebody in there to investigate?
“They have the power to go in there and figure out the truth, and they ought to be doing it,” said Richmond Mayor Tom Butt, referring to the attorney general’s office.
Butt opposed the 150,000-square-foot expansion of the West County Detention Facility, approved by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors in June. Butt said the jail is already too big because Sheriff David Livingston contracts with ICE.
When I visited the jail, a quarter of the 800 inmates were ICE detainees.
“Basically, he’s running a jail for rent out there,” Butt said of Livingston. “People in this part of the county generally don’t appreciate that.”