Moreover, it plans to almost double this space in the next three years. Already, the INS relies on prisons to provide 50 percent of its bed space, a dependency it predicts will jump to 75 percent as it increases its detention capacity. In fact, asylum seekers are incarcerated, denied even the benefit of the constitutional protections extended to criminal inmates. The results are devastating. It is time to revisit US detention policy, before the growth in capacity becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy under which asylum seekers are detained simply because there is a bed for them to fill.
Detention virtually cuts asylum seekers off from the outside world.
Facilities are frequently located in remote areas far from the urban centers in which immigrant communities and support services are located. Visitation policies are often extremely limited in hours and sometimes deny access to family members and friends. For example, the Wicomico County Prison in Salisbury, Maryland is more than a three-hour drive from Washington, DC or Baltimore and the county forbids minor children from visiting their detained parents. Telephone calls in most facilities must be made collect at exorbitant prices. Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that these same restrictions also interfere with the ability of asylum seekers to obtain the legal services that are crucial to the success of their asylum cases.