Report raises concerns about immigrant detainees

• The investigation examined hundreds of documents received from public records requests.
• The documents came from Bergen and Hudson counties and the Department of Homeland Security.
• A second set of findings will be published later this year based on Essex County's recent compliance

NEWARK – An investigation of the use of solitary confinement in New Jersey's immigration detention centers has found an unnecessarily harsh and unfair system that violates state and international standards, according to a statement from the New Jersey Advocates for Immigrant Detainees.

The report, "23 Hours in the Box, Solitary Confinement in New Jersey Immigration Detention," was released by the organization, a coalition of community-based groups that support immigration and detention reform, and the NYU School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic.

The investigation examined hundreds of documents from public record requests and found that solitary confinement is applied far too often and far too long to immigrant detainees in the state. Investigators also found an unnecessarily harsh system severely limiting due process and fraught with violations of state regulations and international standards, the statement said.

"This task force has done a good job bringing these complex issues to the forefront," said Assemblywoman Nancy J. Pinkin, D-18th District, a sponsor of Assembly Bill 4510, which would reform solitary confinement in New Jersey. "I look forward to working with all of the interested parties to improve the overall system. These complex issues deserve proper attention."

"As we continue to advocate for change in the way counties use disciplinary confinement, we need to remind counties and the federal government that immigrant detainees are held on civil violation of immigration laws and that they should not be detained in the first place," said Alix Nguefack, program coordinator for American Friends Service Committee Immigrant Rights Program and the New Jersey Advocates for Immigrant Detainees. "We are calling for an end to the use of solitary confinement in immigration detention."

The initial findings include the analysis of data provided by Bergen and Hudson counties and the Department of Homeland Security. A second set of findings will be published later this year based on Essex County's recent compliance after six months of repeated refusals to comply with our records requests, the statement said.

The report also raises serious due-process concerns, highlights the civil nature of immigration detention and the noncompliance with state regulation and prison's hearing procedures related to solitary confinement, the statement said.

"Using solitary confinement on immigrant detainees is an additional affront to the human dignity of people which the state has no legitimate interest in incarcerating. Further after reading the report one can only conclude that the county jails are engaging in torture which is an intrinsic evil," said Kathy O'Leary region coordinator for Pax Chisti New Jersey, a region of Pax Christi USA.

Specific recommendations include removing the civil detainees from detention especially from county jails, which are designed as short-term penal facilities. Interim recommendations include the need to strengthen state law, which would further limit the use and duration of solitary confinement; implementing mental health screenings and providing meaningful and authoritative community and state oversight to the county jails, the statement said.

"In 2015, solitary confinement should not and must not be used without proper justification," state Sen. Peter J. Barnes III, D-18th District, a prime sponsor of Senate bill 2588, which would reform solitary confinement in New Jersey, said in the statement. "There are too many cases where solitary is becoming the default punishment for relatively minor infractions, this is not justice, this is inhumane."

The research for the report was conducted through open records requests to Hudson, Bergen and Essex county jails. While Bergen and Hudson timely responded to the requests, at the time the report was written, Essex had failed to comply with records requests, the report said.

"There are so many reasons not to use solitary confinement: the often permanent mental trauma, the increased violence, the added difficulties prisoners face upon reentry," said Bonnie Kerness, director of the American Friends Service Committee's Prison Watch Program. "The isolation and lack of human contact is considered no-touch torture, and for the sake of human rights, civil rights, and political rights, we must abolish it. The report contributes to the growing number of advocate organizations protesting the use isolated confinement."