The Otay Mesa Detention Center, which has seen the majority of COVID-19 cases among immigration and customs in the country, is operated by CoreCivic, a private company. Photo via corecivic.com.
The Otay Mesa Detention Center, which has seen the majority of COVID-19 cases among immigration and customs in the country, is operated by CoreCivic, a private company. Photo via corecivic.com.The company, which owns and operates the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, on Friday denied allegations by civil rights groups that immigration and customs detainees were subject to retaliation for speaking out against the conditions of detention.
A complaint filed on Thursday alleged that eight inmates in Otay Mesa and other facilities across the state had violated the rights of the First Amendment, allegedly with punitive measures being taken against those who broadcast complaints or protested, hunger strikes and prayer vigils.
The lawsuit – filed by the ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, and the Centro Legal de La Raza – alleges that guards are targeting pepperballs Protesters shot. put them in solitary confinement and denied them access to food, medicine or legal aid.
Regarding Otay Mesa, the groups claim that retaliation at the facility has been “pervasive and long-established,” and that detainees “consistently express their fear of reporting cases of illegal behavior or unsatisfactory conditions because they are likely to be harassment, solitary confinement or Will suffer worse ”. by the staff of the facility. “
Retaliatory measures were taken last year when detainees protested alleged lack of protective measures during a severe COVID-19 outbreak at the facility that the complaint said resulted in the death of a detainee.
The deceased inmate, 57-year-old Carlos Escobar-Mejia, and several others are said to have been put into solitary confinement after a hunger strike.
Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, said the company denying “the flimsy and sensationalist allegations” contained in the complaint has spent over a year fighting this unprecedented pandemic. “
CoreCivic also alleges that the complaint incorrectly characterizes the facility’s cohort procedures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections by labeling them as solitary confinement, which “does not exist in any of the facilities we operate”.
Gustin alleged that the ACLU’s allegations regarding the alleged retribution story at Otay Mesa came from a place of bias and were largely based on a report previously prepared by the ACLU.
“COVID-19 has posed extraordinary challenges to every detention system in America – public and private,” Gustin said in a statement. “At the same time, the state of California has seen the highest overall number of COVID-19 cases in the country. We have worked closely with our government partners and state health agencies to respond appropriately, thoroughly and with care to this unprecedented situation for the benefit of the people entrusted to us and our communities. We believe that this is why conditions at OMDC have stabilized, but we remain vigilant. “
Other entities the lawsuit pertains to include the Yuba County Jail in Marysville, the Mesa Verde Detention Center in Bakersfield, the Adelanto Detention Center in Adelanto, and the Golden State Annex in McFarland.
The complaint was filed with the Department of Homeland Security’s Civil Rights and Freedoms Bureau, which is investigating publicly filed complaints about the policies, activities, and actions of department personnel.
–City news service
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