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Aug 08The gods will not save you.
Need more proof that the the criminal system is broken and deformed beyond the point where it could possibly resemble justice? how about a man who died with cancer and a fractured spine in a private prison? Staff repeatedly told Hiu Lui Ng to “stop faking” and received no medical treatment. Just to make the point clear,
guards at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., dragged him from his bed on July 30, carried him in shackles to a car, bruising his arms and legs, and drove him two hours to a federal lockup in Hartford, where an immigration officer pressured him to withdraw all pending appeals of his case and accept deportation. [NYTimes article]
The story ends with a District Court of Providence* order that transferred Mr. Ng to a hospital, where his shattered spine and lung, liver and bone cancer were declared legitimate ailments. His sister, wife and children, ages 3 and 1, were prevented from visiting the mortally ill man for three days, who remained under guard.
Human rights abuses in private prisons and other industries, especially PMCs, rarely rate as news, thanks to minimal oversight, corporate obfuscation and the general opinion that prisoners are in jail for a reason (or in Iraq, that “you have to break some eggs to make an omelette”). Given that Mr. Ng was born in China and did fail to show up in immigration court (after his summons was sent to a nonexistent address), this story will disappear, the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation will continue to profit handsomely, and more people will die.
* With a happier ending, this would have been a pretty great coincidence. As it stands, it’s more like The Wire.
Tagged: civil liberty, politics, reading