Free The Children of Texas' Hutto Prison - No Child Left Behind Bars - Close Hutto!
The children at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, 35 miles northeast of Austin, live in cells; they wear uniforms and receive inadequate medical and educational services, are often cold and hungry, separated from their parents as punishment, and until the recently filed ACLU case received only one hour of schooling per day and rarely played outside.
They are guilty of no crimes, and endanger no one. Their parents, who are incarcerated here because they are seeking asylum after fleeing such circumstances as war, torture, political persecution and rape, or are accused of violating civil immigration laws, have committed no crimes. Many of the children are US Citizens.
Teachers at the center are not required to be licensed in Texas, and the state’s family welfare agency exempted Hutto from child care licensing requirements. Along with one other, less prison-like facility in Pennsylvania, Hutto is operated without official regulations.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the arm of Homeland Security that runs the two centers, relies on custody rules designed for inmates
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a for profit company running the majority of privatized prisons in the US, is paid 2.8 million dollars a month (7k per child per month or 84k per child per year) to keep these children behind bars.
It would cost less to put them up at the Austin Hilton with room service.
In contrast, putting a monitoring bracelet/anklet on a parent costs $660 per month.
In past years CCA has made political contributions to key Texas politicians, 100k to Tom Delay and 100k to Governor Perry. Overall, for profit prison companies contributed roughly 519k to state level political campaigns in one year alone. Lt Governor Dewhurt's cut was 53k, while House Speaker Craddick received 34.9k.
Why free the children when keeping them locked up makes so much money?
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