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5 Things You Need to Know About Immigrant Detention In NH

Over the past few months, images of children caged in filthy, inhuman conditions have shocked many Americans and have triggered protests at Border Patrol and ICE detention facilities across the country. When I heard we had our own ICE adult detention facility just a few miles away from Portsmouth in Dover, NH, I jumped at the chance to take a tour with Dover State Rep. Sherry Frost. Here’s what we found.

Setting the Scene

In May, June, and July, close to 3,000 children have been separated from their parents at the border. Many have been housed in overcrowded, dangerous conditions in privatized detention facilities like the one in Homestead, Florida. As for their parents, some are temporarily detained at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility and then deported. Those who choose to seek asylum or who have been accused of violating the law are sent to await trial at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center.

ICE detention facilities are located across the country. Recently, their very presence has become a source of outrage in places far from the southern border, such as Boston , where ICE houses detainees in the Suffolk County House of Correction.

What many New Hampshire residents don’t know is that ICE has had a contract with the Strafford County Jail in Dover, NH since 2009 to house undocumented detainees awaiting trial. While the first reaction of many of the people I know when learning of this is a mix of anger and outrage, the reality of the situation is this:

  1. Our immigration policy is a disaster. We have leadership in Washington that demonizes people fleeing poverty and crime from broken Latin American countries, while blithely ignoring the root causes prompting them to flee.

  2. Many of the people responsible for enforcing our border policies and immigration laws are unfit to serve. Their combination of cruelty and a callous disregard for human life is beyond contempt and is evidenced by the photos we see of children in cages and stories of filthy conditions at border detention camps.

  3. Regardless of our terrible policy and the worse people running it, there is a genuine need to humanely house undocumented detainees awaiting trial in places where they will be safe and treated with the respect they deserve as human beings.

On Tuesday, I toured the Strafford County Jail with Dover Rep. Sherry Frost, Jail Supervisor Chris Brackett, and County Administrator Ray Bower to see what sort of conditions detainees face in New Hampshire.

What We Saw, What We Learned

While the sheer horror and inhumanity of our immigration policies bothers me intensely, it was encouraging to see prisoners at the jail being treated with dignity and respect in a clean, modern, and air-conditioned facility by people who are consummate professionals.

  1. Although both men and women are housed there, there are no children at the facility. We were told that while prison administrators sometimes become aware of undocumented detainees housed at the prison who have been separated from their families, including their children, ICE typically doesn’t not disclose this information. For this reason, the jail can’t facilitate communication between separated family members. The past year has seen an uptick in undocumented detainees of transported to Dover from the southern border.

  2. ICE detainees are housed in the general jail population with state and county prisoners according to the level of their offense. While corrections officers are usually aware of a prisoner’s immigration status, this information isn’t disclosed to other inmates.

    • People detained for over-staying their visa but who have committed no other crimes are grouped with other low risk prisoners.

    • Detainees who have committed crimes are grouped with medium risk or higher risk prisoners.

    • Undocumented detainees are treated like other prisoners. They are given tablets they can use to watch short videos from family members or to communicate via email with them. During their imprisonment, they can take advantage of educational, drug treatment, and mental health programs. While we were there, we met six women who were housed together in a therapeutic community offering chemical dependency treatment who told us their lives were being turned around as a result of the program.

  3. During our tour, we saw plenty of men and women who looked bored (it’s a prison after all), but who were being treated with respect. While prison can be a violent place, we learned that only one guard has been injured in an altercation with a prisoner in the last 15 years. Supervisor Chris Brackett says his hiring philosophy is to looks for guards with good communication skills who can defuse tense situation rather than “someone who can bench press 490 pounds and has biceps on top of biceps”. Instead of creating an environment where the primary driver is fear of punishment, Brackett emphasizes prisoners and guards treating each other with mutual respect. Communication skills were in evidence during exchanges we overheard between guards and prisoners. While we were there, we saw a lone female officer completing a checklist in a block with over 70 male prisoners. She went about her business professionally and undisturbed except for an occasional greeting to a prisoner. Unlike other prisons and county jails across the state, turnover at the Strafford County Jail is extremely low.

  4. Getting certified as an ICE detention facility isn’t easy. To stay certified, a jail must pass two annual inspections per year with almost 700 evaluation criteria. The Stratford County Jail is the only jail in NH to be certified. (Worth noting is that while Strafford County commissioners also inspect the jail annually, the state of New Hampshire has no inspection process for its jails or prisons.) Supervisor Brackett feels the ICE inspection process results in the jail being a much better facility for prisoners and guards alike. However, it’s worth noting that waivers are frequently granted for facilities not meeting some of these criteria—including the Strafford County Jail.

  5. You don’t have to be a state representative to get inside for a tour. If you’re interested in seeing the facility for yourself, you can schedule a tour by calling 603-742-3310. Tours are usually given between 12:30 and 1:30 PM Mondays through Fridays.

Overall, I came away very impressed by the professionalism of the staff as well as the thoughtful and compassionate leadership of Supervisor Bracket and County Administrator Ray Bower.

While our immigration policy is an unconscionable disaster, caring people in the right places can still make a difference

David Meuse