Death in Monmouth County Jail - Kept Secret for Years

by: koleary

Fri Apr 03, 2009 at 10:05:44 AM EDT

DHS, in case the acronym doesn't hit you right away, is Department of Homeland Security - promoted from diaries by Rosi

Last year the New York Times published a shocking story of the neglect of a tailor from Guinea who died as a result of severe medical neglect after a fall left him with a head injury. Congressional hearings followed and it was learned that over 85 immigrant detainees had died in custody. However, there was no way of knowing precisely how many had died since none of the county jails or for profit prisons housing immigrants were required to keep records nor were any inquiries mandated as a result of a death while in custody.

There were many allegations of cover-ups from the immigrant?s rights advocacy community which may have sounded a bit like wild conspiracy theories until today.

koleary :: Death in Monmouth County Jail - Kept Secret for Years

Nina Bernstein has just written another article for the Times confirming the death of a Pakistani man who was held at the Monmouth County jail. His name was Ahmad Tanveer. For over 3 years DHS and the officials at the jail refused to release any information on Mr. Tanveer or acknowledge his death. Thanks to the persistence of the citizen activist members of the NJ Civil Rights Defense Committee and the help of the ACLU, we now know his name, but little else.

DHS has also published a new, revised list of immigrants who have died in detention. This list includes 90 names, but the name of Ana Romero Rivera, who is known to have hung herself in an isolation cell in a county jail in Kentucky last year while awaiting deportation, does not appear on the list. We are left wondering how many more?

Tags: immigration, immigration detention, immigration reform, human rights, civil rights, (All Tags)

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Death in Monmouth County Jail - Kept Secret for Years | 2 comments

This Horrendous Brutality is Perpetrated in Our Name... (0.00 / 0)

These are our employees that are killing, torturing and covering up their misdeeds...not some dirty dictatorship running a gulag.

People are suffering the pangs of hell here in the USA...in New Jersey...and the perpetrators are individuals we may encounter at any point in our day.

By treating these "illegals" as if they were less than dirt we all become soiled in the blood and aginy of innocents who are guilty of nothing more than wanting to make a living.

To those who will say that other countries do far worse, my response is that we Americans, are supposed to be better than this.

The ability to be calloused in the face of brutalization of the weak will eventually effect all of us....for at some point in life it will be we who are weak and dependent..and at the mercy of others who will have it in their power to trreat us decently, as human beings....or as pieces of shit.

http://www.businessofdetention...

http://www.alternet.org/story/...

http://www.mysanantonio.com/ne...

Yes, I know...times are tough, and Americans are also suffering and afraid...but taking out our fear and anger on people in rougher shape than we are is not the solution.

by: Nick Lento @ Sat Apr 04, 2009 at 00:16:11 AM UTC

Medical care provider was CFG, same as currently in Mdlsx, Essex & a few SJ jails (4.00 / 1)

The Center for Family Guidance of Marlton, CFG, according to documents filed with Middlesex County, held the medical care contract with the Monmouth county jail from 2004 - 2007. In 2007, they give the reason for losing the contract in Monmouth as not having been the low bidder. Since DHS only recently acknowledged this death, after denying they had any record of him being in Monmouth, there hasn't been any public accountability for the delay in treatment that might well have resulted in this death of a 43 year old man.

... immigration authorities maintained that they could find no documents showing such a person was ever detained, or died in their custody.
Not until March 20, in response to a new request by The Times under the Freedom of Information Act, did the agency release an internal e-mail message acknowledging that the death had been overlooked.

CFG is currently the medical care provider for Middlesex County jail, where the death of a 70 year old man, also of a heart attack and excessive fluid on his lungs occurred in March, 2008. At that time, 90 detainees also complained that he did not receive prompt or adequate treatment.

Also, in March of 2008, the new Essex County jail started a contract for medical care with CFG.

Essex has only housed ICE detainees since Dec 2007. Middlesex signed up to gain the now over $6 million per year to house detainees in Dec 2001.

by: kwilkinson @ Sun Apr 05, 2009 at 18:48:06 PM UTC