American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons

By Mark Dow

Book Overview

Before September 11, 2001, few Americans had heard of immigration detention, but in fact a secret and repressive prison system run by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has existed in this country for more than two decades. In American Gulag, prisoners, jailers, and whistle-blowing federal officials come forward to describe the frightening reality inside these INS facilities. Journalist Mark Dow's on-the-ground reporting brings to light documented cases of illegal beatings and psychological torment, prolonged detention, racism, and inhumane conditions. Intelligent, impassioned, and unlike anything that has been written on the topic, this gripping work of investigative journalism should be read by all Americans. It is a book that will change the way we see our country.

American Gulag takes us inside prisons such as the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, the Corrections Corporation of America's 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.

American Gulag exposes the full story of a cruel prison system that is operating today with an astonishing lack of accountability.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520246691
• ISBN13: 9780520246690
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 426 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

American Gulag: Held Without Trial or Legal Representation

This book was a multi-year project. The author visited INS holding facilities, privately run prisons, and local city and county jails, all of which provide beds for illegal immigrants, criminal aliens and legal residents who have committed crimes and are awaiting the result of their deportation hearings. Some are criminals who deserve to be incarcerated, while others are caught up in minor disagreements over the length of a tourist visa. A group of Israeli young people who were arrested while they sold toys at a local mall, all of whom were in the US legally, and claimed they were told by their employer that they had work visas. The young women in the group were interrogated while in the custody of the INS for approximately three weeks, by law enforcement officials who demanded to know what mosques these Jewish girls visited while they were in Toledo. The situation is far more dire when the detainees aren't highly educated, don't speak or read English, or are recent-enough arrivals to America that they believe every interrogation by police will end with them being executed. Cultural mannerisms and faith-based requests are not well-understood, especially by the guards who work in local and privately-run jails and prisons, and this leads to a great deal of conflict, including physical and verbal abuse of detainees. Some people won't believe that the author is reporting the truth. However, much of what Mark Dow writes has been corroborated by other researchers, especially about the inherent dangers of a privately run, for-profit prison system.

Systemic Abuse

Given the current focus on the mistreatment and torture of detainees in Iraq, Guantanamo and elsewhere and the debate over the origins of this abhorrent behavior, this is a very timely book. As well as describing the Kafkaesque intricacies of recent Immigration law, Dow documents the mistreatment of non-criminal detainees, showing that the abuse of human beings in detention has a long and institutionalized history within the United States. This book is further argument against the Bush Administration's insistence that the recent prisoner abuses in Iraq are isolated incidents, perpertrated by a few low-level prison guards. In fact, it is a reflection of common practice in a penal system that is as much out of control as the Iraq war situation. Dow writes with remarkable clarity, while treating both the incarcerated and their guards with humanity and respect. It is long past time that this secret world of incarceration has been brought into the light. Congratulations to Mr. Dow!

learn the way it really is

immigration practice and policy is america's deep, dark secret. people are detained indefinitely for reasons that are often trivial and sometimes non-existent. this book shines a light into immigration policy and the detention facilities where noncitizens are held. everybody interested in how our justice system treats noncitizens should read this book. democrat or republican, conservative or liberal, this book will outrage you.