ABUSE AT STEWART
Complaint filed: March 22, 2021
COMPLAINT BACKGROUND:
Freedom for Immigrants has been actively monitoring Stewart County Detention Center for years, and through the work of the national visitation network, began visiting Stewart in 2008.
El Refugio, Freedom for Immigrants, and Project South filed a federal complaint on March 22, 2021 on behalf of 70 individuals detained at Stewart Detention Center regarding violations of their civil rights, including egregious medical neglect, lack of releases for individuals with risk factors, dangerous cohorting of those well and sick and inadequate infection control, lack of social distancing, inconsistent use of PPE, inadequate hygiene and disinfection practices, lack of COVID-19 testing, misinformation, and retaliation.
COMPLAINANTS
We submitted this complaint on behalf of Anderson Delroy, Raymond Anthony Sharpe, Edwin Mejia, Wilmer Guzmán-Rivera, four individuals who only identify by their initials, and 62 others who wish to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation, amongst whom are 59 co-signers to a public letter of concern. All are currently detained or have previously been detained at Stewart Detention Center and have reported violations of their civil rights, including medical neglect and egregious COVID-19 endangerment due to COVID-19 precaution violations since the beginning of the pandemic.
The negligence and abuse experienced has been reported through the El Refugio Local Hotline, letters to El Refugio, and the Freedom for Immigrants National Hotline. Reports from October 2020 to present alleged issues of medical neglect, lack of releases for individuals with risk factors, dangerous cohorting of those well and sick and inadequate infection control, lack of social distancing, inconsistent use of PPE, inadequate hygiene and disinfection practices, lack of COVID-19 testing, misinformation, and retaliation.
These issues have led Stewart Detention Center to have the highest detention death toll in the country due to COVID-19, as well as one of the highest reported rates of infection. These concerns are in direct violation of ICE’s ERO COVID-19 Pandemic Response Requirements, ICE’s Performance Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS) 2011 and the U.S. Constitution and put both people in detention and CoreCivic employees at risk of contracting COVID-19.