Jerry Weinstein is a writer and new media expert. He has worked with us on our End of America project, and now he is contributing to our internet base distribution of an expose of family detention policies affecting Americans and citizens of other countries who are held without accountability in prisons around the country. He recently attended a screening of The Least Of These at the Center for American progress. This is his report:

In the best of times, immigration policy has been described as the Third Rail of American politics. At this moment of the Great Recession, then, discussion of family detention is on the backburner. Last month we posted a link to a New York Times article about a recent detainee death in New Jersey. This tragedy has since sparked a debate about practices and policies that are troubling and, largely, still in effect.

This Monday, May 11th, the Center for American Progress hosted a screening of Marcy Garriot’s The Least of These as part of its Reel Progress film series.

When the Bush administration ended the “catch and release” policy for undocumented immigrants, it simultaneously launched a new diabolical strategy. While the press was placated with the platitude, “We’re keeping families together,” in reality Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorized the opening of a prototype family detention facility that was accountable to no one.

The Least of These is the story of the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in central Texas, operated by the Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), the Blackwater of private prison operators, and the hardships endured by families warehoused for up to one year within its confines. The film tracks several families, political asylum and domestic violence victims both, as their lawyers ultimately mount a successful lawsuit against the Federal government on their behalf.

The evening saw an overflow audience of grassroots activists, policy wonks, and media (including a journo from Politico.com) and a Q&A moderated by CAP’s Vice President for Immigration Policy, Angela Kelley, with director Clark Lyda; immigration lawyer Barbara Hines; and Michelle Brané of the Women’s Refugee Center. [See photo, left, of Clark and Jesse Lyda, Filmmakers, and Marcy Garriott, Executive Producer, in Washington for the CAP event.] The video of the full Q&A is posted on the CAP site at http://www.americanprogress.org/events/2009/05/least.html

When an audience member suggested that the cells at the Hutto Center were “nicer than [his] apartment,” Barbara Hines made the succinct point:

“It’s not that they should be detained in a nicer facility, but that they
should not be detained at all.”