I just spent another weekend driving hours to a detention center for a one-hour visit with a detainee.  I do this because the Prisons for Profit want every bed in the U.S. filled every night, and if the beds in one State are filled, detainees are flown to another State where they know no one and have no visitors.  I believe it’s important for them to know that they haven’t been forgotten.

You might be thinking that they’re here illegally and they shouldn’t be, so they deserve whatever happens to them.  Let me give you just a few responses to that.  Of course, you can make your own judgment.

First, they have committed a misdemeanor not a felony.  Their crime is coming here illegally to find a better life.  They often leave countries disrupted by violence, war, famine and so on.  Once incarcerated they await their required hearing.  Because, alas, there’s never any money for immigration judges, the detainees can wait for fifteen months or more for that hearing.  Who bears the cost of this at $180 a day per detainee?  You.  Me.  So there’s no incentive to speed up the process.  What’s it going to take to change this?  You.  Me.  You know what to do.