From Persecution to Prison - Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of ...

The INS’s detention expenses soared. During the period from 1981-1992,when the length of detention grew dramatically, the INS detention budgetskyrocketed from $15.7 million to $149 million. 66 The detention budget hascontinued to bulge, growing to more than $800 million annually by 2001. 67The INS detains individuals in approximately 400 different facilitiesthroughout the country. 68 It uses its own facilities, known as Service ProcessingCenters (SPCs); private facilities it finances, known as contractprocessing facilities (CPFs); other federal facilities; and, as previously mentioned,numerous state, county and municipal prisons and jails. 69 The INSused about 225 local jails across the country in 2001, 70 with the YorkCounty, Pennsylvania facility (one of the facilities where this study wasconducted) holding the largest number of INS detainees; in 2000 it held adaily average of 729 detainees. 71 Nationwide, in its 33 districts, the INShad 18 facilities including its own SPCs and CPFs, such as the Elizabeth,NJ and Queens, NY centers, run by the Correction Corporation of Americaand the Wackenhut Corporation respectively. 72Of the estimated 20,000 persons detained by the INS at any given timein recent years, precise figures of how many were asylum seekers are notavailable. The US government has not released accurate statistics ondetained asylum seekers, failing to comply with a statute which requiredthe agency to report asylum detention statistics to Congress. 73 In July2001, the Dallas Morning News reported that the INS said that 1,500detainees were asylum seekers, while the same year a church group estimatedthat 3,000 were asylum seekers. 74 Another newspaper and an immigrantsupport network estimated as many as 5,000 were asylum seekers. 75The New York metropolitan area, including the INS districts of New66Eleanor Acer, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Testimony to the US Senate’s ImmigrationSubcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, September 16, 1998, p.1 [LCHRTestimony]67Hedges, C. Suit Details the Beatings of Detainees in Louisiana, The New York Times (NYTimes, Suit Details), January 2, 200168Nugent, INS Detention.69Federal Detention Plan70Hedges, C. Policy to Protect Jailed Immigrants is Adopted by U.S., The New York Times,January 2, 2001 [NY Times, Policy to Protect].71The Immigration and Naturalization Service and the United States Marshals Service IntergovernmentalService Agreements of Detention Services with the County of York, PennsylvaniaYork County Prison, Office of the Inspector General, Report No. GR-70-01-005, June25, 2001, Executive Summary [Inspector General’s York Report].72Nugent, INS Detention73Eleanor Acer, Living Up to America’s Values: Reforming the US Detention System for AsylumSeekers, Refuge Vol. 20 No. 3, p. 46; Tulsky, F. Asylum Seekers Face Tougher US Laws,San Jose Mercury News, December 10, 2000, p.A1. [Mercury News, Tougher US Laws]74Long-term INS Detainees at p.2, and Church Council Statement April 2001.BACKGROUND 33