04.30.07

T. Don Hutto, FPS Exemption and A UN Inspector Is Coming

Posted in Commentary, Criminal Justice, District 31, Had Enough Yet?, T. Don Hutto, Williamson County at 10:12 am by wcnews

Last week, from documents (Linked here – part 1 and part 2 [.PDF]) sent to us from Dave Maass of the San Antonio Current, EOW has learned that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) applied for and was granted an exemption from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). It’s interesting that CCA would want to keep DFPS out of its facility. It would seem they’d invite this kind of scrutiny to show that they are running a facility that is above reproach. Also if DFPS had been allowed in, from the start, all the issues with food, hours of education, and threatening children with separation from their parents, may have been found out and corrected, much sooner. Included in the documents linked above is the “Resident Orientation Handbook” for the facility. It’s a tiny window into a depressing life, where these asylum-seekers who’ve done nothing wrong, must live once they get to the “land of the free”.

Last week we also found out that a UN Inspector will be coming to T. Don Hutto in the near future. He wants to see, first hand, the conditions at the family lock-up.

Finally, on Saturday civil rights groups held a hearing in the Capitol Extension on HCR 64, authored by Rep. Eddie Rodriguez. It’s the resolution asking Homeland Security to consider options other than putting children in this lock-up. The bill is stuck in the House State Affairs Committee, and chair Rep. David Swinford won’t allow a hearing on the resolution. Therefore these citizens took matters into their own hands and held a hearing anyway, Civil-rights groups blast Hutto facility.

On Saturday representatives from civil-rights groups, such as the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, Mothers Against Discriminatory Racism in Education and Society and the League of United Latin American Citizens, gathered at the Capitol for a hearing concerning House Concurrent Resolution 64, which officially condemns Hutto on behalf of Texas lawmakers. The resolution will also offer alternatives for detaining immigrants.

“Putting children in jail is a disproportionate response to the issue of immigration,” said Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, who put forward the resolution, in a written statement. “As a society we should uphold core values which reject policies that punish children for the acts of their parents.”

Here’s an article from Counterpunch on T. Don Hutto, The Horrors of Hutto. In the coming elections we need to holdthe Williamson County elected officials that are responsible for continuing the in our county accountable for imprisoning children and families for profit.

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