Sunday, November 06, 2005
Illegal Immigrants, Cub Scouts Welcomed to the Third Floor of the McHenry County Jail
Two sergeants, W. Estrada and D. Sitke, conducted the tour of the facilities that will be used by the Immigration Custom Enforement (ICE) officials, which had opened two days before on October 24th
The Cub Scouts were informed that the people on the third floor were not inmates.
"We have to call them 'detainees,'" one of the sergeants said.
When filled to capacity, there will be 260 detainees.
The entry door from the stairs to the third floor automatically closed several seconds after it opened. Only a few of the Cubs and parents could enter at a time.
On the way to the empty "pod," the Cubs saw were the sick immigrants were housed and two triangular shaped exercise rooms with "fresh air, required by the state," as one sergeant put it.
"It's a boring gym. We had to take out the basketball hoops," he continued.
Cameras were throughout the complex.
"Hey, I'm on TV," one of the Cubs said when he saw the monitor.
The new floor will be controlled differently from the other two, where there is no inmate contact with the correctional officers. In the ICE facility, there is a control platform where there will be a person on duty twenty-four hours a day. Having guards mixed with the inmates is the standard practice in Illinois state prisons, but on the other two floors everything is monitored electronically.
"We're going to know what makes them tick," was the motivation for the design change. It's called "direct supervision and it is thought to be "a lot safer."
"Even if you can't understand them, you can tell by body language," it was explained.
There will be no face-to-face visitation. Visitors and detainees will be seen and heard through a televised arrangement.
Because most of the detainees do not speak good English, the officers have access to a language line, which contains mainly medical information.
The rest of the jail has Kane County inmates mixed with those from McHenry County.
The supervisors said it was "much more relaxed in the ICE area."
There are 32 cells in each pod and moveable chairs and tables in the day room area.
"Can we be locked in one of the jail things?" a Cub asked.
Once a Cub was locked up, a father said, "Have a good life."
"I'll have a good life," was the reply from behind closed doors.
To re-enforce the message that people shouldn't want to be in jail, one of the officers told the kids, "Although it's a nice jail, it's not a very nice place to be. We tell you when you can eat and when you can sleep. Your freedoms are taken away here."
One Cub asked if anyone had ever escaped from the jail?
"No," was the reply.
The Cubs were admonished by the adults not to run around the room. They were climbing one set of stairs to the second tier to explore and, then, coming down the other stairs.
There are no pillows in the bunk bed cells, but the blue plastic mattresses have a pillow-like buldge at one end. There are two built-in shelves for a desk and a chair. The sink and toliet are stainless steel. Water is turned on with buttons. The spicket in the sink doubles as a water fountain.
"The only thing we're missing is the mint on the pillows. We're working on that," one sergeant said.
There are also hooks below a shelf, but they "won't hold lots of weight."
There are food slots in the doors, but they are blocked.
On the way out, one Cub said, "That was fun!"
Only males will be housed on the top floor. Female detainees will be in half of a cell block shared with female county prisoneers on a lower floor. There is a locked door between the two sections, through and under which the male and female detainees used to communicate.
The day before, by happenstance, Corrections Chief Tom Svoboda was standing behind me at the McHenry County Department of Public Health hallway waiting for his 2:30 flu shot appointment yesterday. It seems that the 3 o’clock appointments came early, so there was a long line, instead of the short one I experienced last year.
We started talking and I learned a lot.
About half of the “detainees” are Chinese. They get charged $6500 to get out of China and are flown to O’Hare. They basically indenture themselves to those who ship them out, much as the indentured servants did in colonial times. Once here they are told they are on their own. Since it is difficult to escape from the International Terminal, most (maybe all) end up being captured. Most, if not all, claim asylum. Interestingly, about 95% get the asylum.
They still owe the $6500, of course. When they are released, lots of the men end up working in Chinese buffets, sleeping in the restaurants’ basements. Many of the women become basically sexual slaves until they work off the $6500.
Why?
Although people certainly must be in the United States to enforce collection of the money, their families are also still in China.
Of the other half of the prisoners, about half are from other Far Eastern countries and half are from Mexico.
The prisoners are docile, returning to their cells when told to at night.
To return to the main blog, click here.
# posted by Cal Skinner : 2:55 PM 0 comments
The Cub Scouts were informed that the people on the third floor were not inmates.
"We have to call them 'detainees,'" one of the sergeants said.
When filled to capacity, there will be 260 detainees.
The entry door from the stairs to the third floor automatically closed several seconds after it opened. Only a few of the Cubs and parents could enter at a time.
On the way to the empty "pod," the Cubs saw were the sick immigrants were housed and two triangular shaped exercise rooms with "fresh air, required by the state," as one sergeant put it.
"It's a boring gym. We had to take out the basketball hoops," he continued.
Cameras were throughout the complex.
"Hey, I'm on TV," one of the Cubs said when he saw the monitor.
The new floor will be controlled differently from the other two, where there is no inmate contact with the correctional officers. In the ICE facility, there is a control platform where there will be a person on duty twenty-four hours a day. Having guards mixed with the inmates is the standard practice in Illinois state prisons, but on the other two floors everything is monitored electronically.
"We're going to know what makes them tick," was the motivation for the design change. It's called "direct supervision and it is thought to be "a lot safer."
"Even if you can't understand them, you can tell by body language," it was explained.
There will be no face-to-face visitation. Visitors and detainees will be seen and heard through a televised arrangement.
Because most of the detainees do not speak good English, the officers have access to a language line, which contains mainly medical information.
The rest of the jail has Kane County inmates mixed with those from McHenry County.
The supervisors said it was "much more relaxed in the ICE area."
There are 32 cells in each pod and moveable chairs and tables in the day room area.
"Can we be locked in one of the jail things?" a Cub asked.
Once a Cub was locked up, a father said, "Have a good life."
"I'll have a good life," was the reply from behind closed doors.
To re-enforce the message that people shouldn't want to be in jail, one of the officers told the kids, "Although it's a nice jail, it's not a very nice place to be. We tell you when you can eat and when you can sleep. Your freedoms are taken away here."
One Cub asked if anyone had ever escaped from the jail?
"No," was the reply.
The Cubs were admonished by the adults not to run around the room. They were climbing one set of stairs to the second tier to explore and, then, coming down the other stairs.
There are no pillows in the bunk bed cells, but the blue plastic mattresses have a pillow-like buldge at one end. There are two built-in shelves for a desk and a chair. The sink and toliet are stainless steel. Water is turned on with buttons. The spicket in the sink doubles as a water fountain.
"The only thing we're missing is the mint on the pillows. We're working on that," one sergeant said.
There are also hooks below a shelf, but they "won't hold lots of weight."
There are food slots in the doors, but they are blocked.
On the way out, one Cub said, "That was fun!"
Only males will be housed on the top floor. Female detainees will be in half of a cell block shared with female county prisoneers on a lower floor. There is a locked door between the two sections, through and under which the male and female detainees used to communicate.
The day before, by happenstance, Corrections Chief Tom Svoboda was standing behind me at the McHenry County Department of Public Health hallway waiting for his 2:30 flu shot appointment yesterday. It seems that the 3 o’clock appointments came early, so there was a long line, instead of the short one I experienced last year.
We started talking and I learned a lot.
About half of the “detainees” are Chinese. They get charged $6500 to get out of China and are flown to O’Hare. They basically indenture themselves to those who ship them out, much as the indentured servants did in colonial times. Once here they are told they are on their own. Since it is difficult to escape from the International Terminal, most (maybe all) end up being captured. Most, if not all, claim asylum. Interestingly, about 95% get the asylum.
They still owe the $6500, of course. When they are released, lots of the men end up working in Chinese buffets, sleeping in the restaurants’ basements. Many of the women become basically sexual slaves until they work off the $6500.
Why?
Although people certainly must be in the United States to enforce collection of the money, their families are also still in China.
Of the other half of the prisoners, about half are from other Far Eastern countries and half are from Mexico.
The prisoners are docile, returning to their cells when told to at night.
To return to the main blog, click here.
# posted by Cal Skinner : 2:55 PM 0 comments
# posted by Cal Skinner : 4:09 PM
