Key problems that occur in prisons are discussed in the book American Gulag: Inside US Immigration Prison by Mark Dow. Dow uses the book to inform readers about what goes on in today's jails located all over the United States. The federal government intends to enlarge these facilities as the number of immigrants being held in these cells has increased. Despite the rise in numbers, Dow vividly depicts the harsh living circumstances these people endure, the laws that rule them, and the secrecy surrounding the government's imprisonment of noncitizens in his book. He uses stories and personal experiences by the workers in these facilities and the prisoners in order to bring a clear picture of the changes in the life of immigrant/prisoners. Dow supplements the stories with previous events in the history, treatment of the detainees by the authorities, destruction of personal property, and lawlessness in these facilities. He shows how these mistreatments harden the detainees and make them resist and turn into activists, fighting for their rights and freedom (Dow, 2004).
Through stories given to Dow by the detainees and some workers in these facilities, clear themes of dehumanization, lack of laws and rules to govern the facilities, physical and psychological abuse of the detainees, mistreatment, and unclear circumstances in which detainees are transferred; indefinite detention periods are some of the themes that Dow clearly exposes to the public and the world. He shows that these mistreatments of prisoners in prisons are deliberately done as they are denied to have advocates and denied their rights as prisoners. He shows how it’s difficult by any advocate to access these prisoners and get any tangible information from their clients, the confinement facilities are too complicated and to make matters worse some of these prisoners have no record of confinement. Besides that, the laws that govern these facilities are hell bent on mistreating the prisoners to an extent that most prisoners spend without food but the status quo is maintained (Dow, 2004). Dow also shows through the experiences and stories of detainees how various laws have been advocated for, some put in place while some times no changes takes place after a hard fight for changes.
Analysis of the Book
Racial segregation has been a vice of discussion over several decades in the US detention facilities. Dow employs his stories to show how Africans were victimized, mistreated, verbally abused, and some deported to their countries for reasons of overstaying, this after their visa expires while for all that period they have been detained without apparent reason and no communication with their home countries. For instance Dow draws readers’ attention to the case of Tony Ebibillo, a Nigerian asylum seeker who was deported even though his application as an asylum was still pending. He was detained, put into solitary confinement cells for most of the time he was there, where he could not reach a cellphone and communicate to his people. Ebibillo was in this cell for a year with no apparent reason of being detained before he was deported to his country for overstaying his visa, besides that on day of deportation he is handled more like an animal more than a human being (Dow, 2004).
In addition to that, there is the case of Felix Oviawe, who was also from Nigeria and an asylum seeker. He presented himself to the authorities as an asylum seeker but his trustworthy and honesty was rewarded by being thrown into detention. He was detained at INS Esmor Dentation Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey and later transferred to a nearby County jail, where together with his two other counterparts were received with lots of beating and mistreatment that involved: removal of body hair by a pair of thongs and pliers, being forced to seat in disrespectful and disregarding positions while naked, looking into toilet bowls and sometimes forcing inmates to make sexual activities with each other. These are just but a few cases that took place in 1990s since there are many more that went unrecorded and reported as Doe puts it in his book American Gulag, for example there is the case where an INS officer got frustrated with high number of Somalis seeking for asylum, he handcuffed one of the Somalis and left him in car under scorching heat from the sun. These incidences show how Africans were victims of these barbaric acts in the prison with their rights being violated as they were treated as second hand beings and criminals who had no rights (Dow, 2004).
Racial discrimination is also eminent in the American Gulag as Doe puts it. He uses the story of the African woman at the church to narrate on how she was treated as an animal. She was not aware of the word “asylum” she had only travelled to America to look for her brother and sister who had earlier been captured by American military. At the airport she was called a monkey by an official who tells her that she should go back to her country. She narrates how the authorities didn’t care about them, the poor conditions that they lived in and the embarrassment of being searched after every move they made, they were no longer asylum seekers but criminals who deserved no mercy but corporal punishment. She also narrates how her clothes were removed by three female and two male officers and how she was injected carelessly just like one would do to a dog. Through this short narration Doe brings a clear picture to his audience in how Africans were treated as animals, humiliated and psychological abused (Dow, 2004).
Doe through a letter from one of the students of a part time employee at Dade County Public schools shows how the mistreatment does not only end with Africans. The student who is a detainee at Krome detention center of U.S Immigration and Naturalization Service, writes of the inhuman activities that take place at this facility. The teacher also learns that they are employed not to break the boredom of the inmate in class but to take the details of the prisoners which the authorities of that facilities use to get funds and channel them into their own programs. These activities were to take place without any interrogation from the employed teachers. Besides, the student through the letter we learn that he is a Haitian, he tells his teacher how his property and those of fellow Haitians were confiscated, dictionary, suitcase and money receipt were taken and never to be returned. When the teacher pursues the matter he is warned that he is not taking the right protocol while pursuing the matter. In regard to this, the teacher gets dismissed as his integrity is questionable to the authority and he is no longer trustworthy to keep the secrets of the facility. Similar to the case of Africans, the authorities were aware of the bad image they created to the outside world but they cared less. In fact the authorities were proud of their work when they beat and mistreated the inmates, as we see an officer showing off his handiwork to a fellow officer (Dow, 2004).
The issue of intimidation and secrecy also comes out clearly in the letter. Teachers were made to understand that there must be secrecy of the happenings in the facility. The media was perceived to distort information and paint a bad picture of the facility therefore teachers were barred from disclosing any information at any point. For instance, a teacher by name Todaro, is fired after the demonstrations that happened in 1990, his mistake being that he invited church members to share words with detainees of various nationalities. There was also an incidence where the writers work was to interview the detainees but he was denied because of his previous affairs. When he gave it a second trial he was told his immigration status did not allow him to pass because he was born in Houston. When he was finally given a chance to interview the Haitian Community in the facility the result was deportation of his former student two months later at 2 am in the morning. Through these events, Dow manages to clearly show his audience that the Krome Dentation Facility did not give detainees their rights but they were also not allowed to access media or any person from outside the facility. Besides, the workers of this facility were also not to disclose any information to the public.
Dow also talks about the laws that were used for the past one century and how they have gradually changed with time. He points out that previously the local authorities were the ones who regulated the immigrants and the main point of entrance was at major ports. The only major reason for one being deported to their country was failure in passing medical examination. Therefore upon failing the captains of the ship were tasked to deport those individuals back to their mother countries, though there were rare cases of deportation. However, with large number of Indians arriving as contractors in early 1850s, it spurred the need to have regulations on the immigrants. Therefore, a bureaucratic and machinery authority was built to regulate the immigrants (Dow, 2004).
With large number of immigrants and most of them seeing isle of hope as the main entrance port, led to poor sanitary conditions due to overcrowding, inadequate conditions, and as a result many immigrants committed suicide. This led to closure of the island and later being reopened as museum. There was then a policy where any immigrant that was deemed dangerous to the locals was deported and not detained this policy worked for at least 25 years. However, with the increase in number of the immigrants, the policies that seemed to be casual over a century turned to be brutal, that was depending on the economic conditions across the borders. In 1980s around 125000 Cubans were welcomed by President Carter as political refugees since they were fleeing from a dictatorial regime in their country. While in the same year the influx of Haitians into the States was deemed as asylum they were served at the Krome Detention facility for a long period. This was due to harsh policies set to reduce the number of immigrants by discouraging them through detention. Under President Reagan the policies became tougher. He came up with a contingency plan whereby the aliens who had no documents as immigrants were detained. The number of detainees doubled almost on a daily basis. This led to flight of thousands of Salvadorans and Guatemalans. There was also laws governing the criminal activities of the aliens, one was either deported or detained. These harsh laws have been manipulated over time in order to reduce the number of immigrants (Dow, 2004).
However, Dow portrays that, since September 2001 the perceptions about the immigrants has changed in various Countries. This is in regard to the facts that with detained immigrants the countries get a good portion of funds from the federal government and spend only a slice of the portion to the detainees. Besides that, the facilities offered job opportunities to the locals in various capacities. Therefore, this has changed to be a scheme of making money rather than a pandemic that was seen looming earlier. For instance, the federal government paid York County $45 per detainee but the county officials spend only $24 per detainee. This is indeed a booming business that was worthy being maintained (Dow, 2004).
As such, a number of laws have been enacted in the recent years to guard the rights of the inmates. These includes Prisoner’s Right Law that guards the inmates while behind bars. In this regard, cruel punishments and sexual harassment have been clearly defined so that inmates do not suffer. Also, the inmates are allowed to complain in case the conditions in prisons are not good and in such a scenario they can access the courts. Furthermore, there are laws that help favor the disabled prisoners and all other prisoners in terms of mental and medical health. The human rights organizations are more concerned about the state of the prisoners who advocate for zero tolerance on discrimination (Kleinig, 2017).
Conclusion
Racial segregation, mistreatment, destruction of property, physical and psychological abuse in U.S cells have been in existence for more than two decades as Dow has clearly illustrated in his book American Gulag: Inside U.S Immigrants Prison. Therefore this should serve as an alarm to those who people who view United States as a place of milk and honey that tough time awaits them if they travel without proper documents. It’s also an eye opener to the general public that not all is good in our detention facilities, the facilities holds lots of secrets that only few have the really picture of transpires in them. It’s also evident that in early days the immigrants were not seen as of no value in the prisons but today the county officials have turned the detainees into money vendor machines. The rules governing the immigration have also been in existence over more than a century but they have been in constant change in order to reduce the number of the aliens in the United States.
References
Dow, M. (2004). American Gulag: Inside US immigration prisons. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Kleinig, J. (2017). Prisoners' rights. New York: Routledge.
