American Gulag
Subtitle: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: June 14, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 426
ISBN-13: 9780520239425
Subjects: Immigration & emigration; Penology & punishment; Political imprisonment; Politics/International Relations; Government policy; United States; Emigration & Immigration; Political Science; Sociology; USA; Human rights; Penology; Political Science / General; Anthropology - General; Americas (North Central South West Indies); General; Alien detention centers; Emigration and immigration; Immigrants
First sentence: The letter begins with elaborate politeness and without question marks: I must thank you for your kind understanding.
Description: "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 - now Department of Homeland Security - prisoners. It contains 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."--BOOK JACKET.