ACLU Applauds Recommendations And Demands Immediate Action

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2008
CONTACT: Whitney Potter (505) 266 5915 ext. 1003

GENEVA—A United Nations committee today issued a strongly worded critique of the United States’ record on racial discrimination and urged the government to make sweeping reforms to policies and laws affecting racial and ethnic minorities, women, and immigrants in this country. The ACLU called on the U.S. government to take vigorous steps to implement the committee’s recommendations and fulfill its human rights treaty obligations.

“The message from the U.N. human rights committee is clear when it comes to the U.S.’ record on human rights and racial equality – the government can’t just talk the talk but must also walk the walk,” said Jamil Dakwar, Advocacy Director of the ACLU Human Rights Program. “To claim the high moral ground and assert leadership on the issue of human rights, the U.S government must address the systemic discrimination and injustice that exists in its own backyard.”

Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union were in Geneva last month to testify before the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on the state of racial and ethnic discrimination in the U.S. The CERD committee, which oversees compliance with an international treaty to end racial discrimination that was ratified by the U.S. in 1994, reviewed testimony and comprehensive “shadow reports” by the ACLU and other human rights groups before issuing its final report.

Among its recommendations, the committee called on the U.S. to:

• Ban all ethnic and racial profiling practices by federal, state and local law enforcement officers;
• Address the problem of school-to-prison pipeline – the problematic trend of funneling many minority children into prison – and encourage affirmative action programs;
• Develop non-penal alternatives to detention to decrease the number of migrants and immigrants in detention;
• Ensure that all non-citizens detained or arrested in the fight against terrorism are properly protected by domestic law that complies with international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law;
• Pass legislation enabling all citizens to vote upon release from incarceration;
• Cease construction of the wall along the U.S. border with Mexico;
• Address violence against Native, minority and immigrant women, especially women who are migrant workers and domestic workers; and
• Pass legislation and enforce labor laws to protect migrant workers from racial discrimination.

Also in Geneva today, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Jorge Bustamante presented a report on the injustices faced by migrants and immigrants in the U.S., citing immigrant detention policies and facilities that fail to meet international standards and have few protections for the rights of migrant workers.

Last year, Bustamante conducted a three-week fact finding mission at the request of the U.S. government, visiting a detention center in Arizona and meeting with migrant communities, immigrant rights advocates and government officials in California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Florida, New York and Washington D.C.. During that time Bustamante was denied entrance to New Jersey’s Monmouth County Correctional Institution and  Texas’s Hutto immigration detention center, a converted prison that houses about 400 immigrants [check the number], including children and asylum seekers. In 2007, the ACLU filed successful federal lawsuits on behalf of 12 children detained at the Hutto facility, charging that the children were subject to inhumane treatment. The U.S. has a history of blocking international experts from access to controversial detention facilities.

“Racially discriminatory practices are still rampant in New Mexico, most notably in the continued practice of local police enforcement of immigration laws,” according to Maria Nape, director of the ACLU of New Mexico’s Southern Regional Office and Border Rights Project.   “Racial profiling and blatant constitutional violations against our immigrant communities should not be tolerated.  We will continue to urge governments at every level to adopt humane policies that do not unfairly target racial or ethnic minorities.”

The Special Rapporteur’s report highlights eliminating mandatory detention of undocumented immigrants and determining whether non-citizens pose a risk to society on a case-by-case basis; and allowing immigrants in detention the chance to have their custody reviewed before an immigration judge.

The ACLU’s report on the state of racial discrimination in the U.S. and other relevant documents can be found online here:www.aclu.org/intlhumanrights/racialjustice/cerd.html

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 24, 2008

CONTACT: Whitney Potter, ACLU of New Mexico, (505) 266-5915 x1003 or 507-9898; wpotter@aclu-nm.org

ALBUQUERQUE—The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed a lawsuit today against the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) for failing to protect inmate Roman Gallardo from physical and sexual assault by another prisoner while Gallardo was incarcerated for a DWI offense in 2006.  The rape took place after Gallardo, an openly gay man, was forced to share a cell with an inmate who was known to have sexually assaulted at least one other prisoner.

“Jail officials knowingly placed Mr. Gallardo in a dangerous situation,” said Peter Simonson, ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director.  “Their failure to adequately train and supervise detention officers and provide safeguards against physical and sexual violence amounted to deliberate indifference towards Gallardo’s safety, rights, and bodily integrity.”

According to ACLU legal papers, inmates and custody officers knew that Gallardo was gay and ridiculed him on a daily basis.  The director of MDC, Ronald Torres, failed to address the situation and, in January, 2006, allowed Gallardo to be housed in a cell with inmate Niklas Trujeque.

Months earlier, Torres and former jail director Harry Tipton had received a letter from an Albuquerque attorney informing them that the attorney’s client had been raped by Trujeque while incarcerated at MDC.

Roman Gallardo made the following statement, “I was denied my rights as a human being while I was under the care of MDC, and they didn’t care for my well being. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else, male or female.  It is wrong and can be prevented.”

Attorneys in the lawsuit are Kari Morrissey, cooperating attorney for the ACLU and George Bach, ACLU of New Mexico Staff Attorney.  In addition to Ronald Torres, the ACLU’s legal complaint cites the City of Albuquerque and the Bernalillo County Commission as defendants.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

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Related Documents:

MDC Complaint

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 7, 2007

CONTACTS: Whitney Potter, ACLU of New Mexico (505) 266 5915 ext. 1003, Cell (505) 507 9898 or Nancy Koenigsberg, P&A (505) 256-3100

LAS CRUCES, NM—Civil rights groups sued the Dona Ana County Detention Center today for failure to provide adequate mental health services to inmates in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and constitutional prohibitions on “cruel and unusual punishment.”  The class action suit charges county officials with “deliberate indifference to [inmates’] serious mental health needs,” including failure to provide adequate mental health screening, monitoring, and care.  On behalf of plaintiffs, Protection and Advocacy System, Inc. (P&A), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico, and private attorneys Michael Lilley of Las Cruces and Peter Cubra and Lisa Schatz-Vance of Albuquerque seek an effective program for mental health screening and treatment for all detainees and policy changes prohibiting the unnecessary incarceration of people with mental illness.

“Local officials have chosen to arrest and incarcerate people with serious mental disabilities instead of providing them with the treatment they require,” said P&A Executive Director, Jim Jackson.  “After incarcerating them, the county does not provide them with needed treatment at the jail, either.  We gave County officials multiple chances to fix the situation and they ignored our efforts.  We felt litigation was our only recourse.”

In December, 2006, a jail conditions expert, hired by P&A, inspected the jail and sent a memo to detention center Director Chris Barela recommending improvements in the jail’s program for mental health screening.  When their letter went ignored, P&A sent a second letter in June, 2007 requesting that specific problems regarding inadequate mental health care be corrected.  The letter followed an attempted suicide by a person held in the jail who is a named plaintiff in the civil rights suit.  In May and September 2007 P&A visited with jail officials and reiterated their concerns.

None of these contacts prompted significant improvements in mental health programming.

ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson said, “By ignoring inmates’ mental health problems, the county has created a lose-lose situation.  The inmates suffer.  The jail suffers, because it faces possible suicides and violence within the facility.  And ultimately the citizens of Doña Ana county lose, because eventually some of these inmates will return to society in worse mental states than when they entered the jail.  It’s high time the situation was resolved for all concerned.”

The lawsuit was filed in state court.  In addition to policy changes, it seeks punitive and compensatory damages.

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Related Documents:

Dona Ana County Complaint

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