American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons

Mark Dow9780520239425, 0520239423

American Gulag takes us inside prisons such as the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, the Corrections Corporation of Americas Houston Processing Center, and county jails around the country that profit from contracts to hold INS prisoners. It contains disturbing in-depth profiles of detainees, including Emmy Kutesa, a defector from the Ugandan army who was tortured and then escaped to the United States, where he was imprisoned in Queens, and then undertook a hunger strike in protest. To provide a framework for understanding stories like these, Dow gives a brief history of immigration laws and practices in the United States—including the repercussions of September 11 and present-day policies. His book reveals that current immigration detentions are best understood not as a well-intentioned response to terrorism but rather as part of the larger context of INS secrecy and excessive authority.

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Table of contents :
EEn……Page 1
American Gulag – Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons……Page 2
Copyright Info……Page 6
Dedication……Page 7
TOC……Page 8
Prologue – “Let This Be Home”……Page 10
1. Invisibility, Intimidation, and the INS……Page 16
2. September 11 – Secrecy, Disruption, and Continuity……Page 34
3. Another World, Another Nation – Miami’s Krome Detention Center……Page 63
4. “Enforcement Means You’re Brutal”……Page 83
5. The World’s First Private Prison……Page 104
6. “Keeping Quiet Means Deny” – A Hunger Strike in Queens……Page 125
7. The Art of Jailing……Page 152
8. “Criminal Aliens” and Criminal Agents……Page 171
9. Siege, Shackles, Climate, Design……Page 186
10. “Speak to Every Media” – Resistance, Repression, and the Making of a Prisoner……Page 212
11. Good and Evil in New England……Page 242
12. Out West – Philosophy and Despair……Page 259
13. Dead Time……Page 278
14. Mariel Cubans – Abandoned, Again and Again……Page 300
Acknowledgments……Page 318
Notes……Page 322
Selected Bibliography……Page 388