She needed a sanitary pad urgently, so she knocked on the glass window and called to get a guard's attention. She was ignored until suddenly a guard came, seized her by the hair, dragged her on the ground and then put her in solitary confinement for five days. She tells us that yesterday she asked an INS officer when she would be released from prison. He replied that she could go back to China immediately if she wanted. They are treated the same as the other prisoners, kept in windowless cells on dimly lit corridors.
Televisions show only programs selected by prison authorities.
Prisoners are allowed out into a recreation yard for about three hours a week, the only time they see daylight or breathe fresh air. For 12 hours the prisoners then have no water and no food. Sometimes they are put in restraints. We ask if asylum seekers are ever put in padded cells or in restraints. Yes, we are told, the immigrant detainees are treated like any other prisoner.