Everyday Erinyes #230

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

There are many aspects of life that one doesn’t find out about until one is, for want of a better word, exposed to them If this is true of life in general, how mush more is it true of a pandemic. Lona sent me a link to an article on the use of solitary confinement in ICE immigration detention centers, thinking the Furies might be interested. And they are. I see three issues here – first, prisons in general – the prison systems, the state of prison facilities, the conditions for those who work in prisons as well as those who are living there, for whatever reason, for whatever length of time. Second is the whole issue of solitary confinement within prisons, how it affects those who are kept in it, and especially for long periods of time, what it is like to be in it as opposed to outside of it but still in the prison – all of that. Third is the pandemic itself. Prisons, be they correctional or immigration prisons, are charged with the duty of keeping their inmates safe, including from the coronavirus. They do not always succeed in that duty (As we know from other horror stories, some don’t try very hard.)

The article begins with a story from Carlos Hernandez Corbacho. Mr. Hernandez Corbacho, and his wife Maydel Curbelo Perez, fled Cuba on account of the attention they were receiving from police on account of their open and vocal criticism of government. They came to the US by a route including Nicaragua and moving up through Central America to Nogales, Mexico, which borders Arizona. They presented themselves to CBP for political asylum, a perfectly legal thing for them to do. This happened about last November, after a roughly five-month journey. Curbelo Perez won asylum in March. then came CoViD, and Hernandez Corbacho’s court dates kept getting postponed. He won asylum August 19, but not until having been stranded in ICE detention for about five months.

He felt his first symptom in June. “But he said he was afraid to say anything. He’d heard rumors of officials locking detainees with COVID-19 symptoms in solitary, and wanted to put it off as long as possible.” One can hardly blame him. And that’s part of the problem. “Placing COVID-19 patients in solitary confinement, experts say, is inhumane and jeopardizes the overall population by deterring detainees from reporting symptoms. (emphasis mine)“

Solitary confinement was never intended to be used for quarantine. However, I don’t know what other facilities an ICE detention center might have or have access to. At any rate, that’s what was used, and the experience was terrible.

I cannot embed, but I can link to, a statement by Mr.Hernandez Corbacho, in a video format, in Spanish, but woth CC in English.

“In an emailed statement, ICE said that its quarantine practices are not a punitive measure and are conducted in accordance with the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control guidelines.” Well, that can be true, and still have absolutely nothing to do with what it feels like to an asylum seeker – or anyone else in that position. Even if not filthy, as it sadly often is, it can be very hard on people. One thing which does not occur to people who have never been near such a thing, and trying to imagine it, is that it is generally incredibly noisy. That alone can feel like being beaten. Mr. Hernandez Corbacho alludes to this. So did Colorado’s head correctional officer, who voluntarily spent 24 hours in solitary confinement soon after he took the position, in order to have the experience. I’m an introvert, but the noise level and quality they describe would drive me up a wall very fast.

And yet, dear Furies, I am going to give the low level employees, aorking in these conditions, many of them just trying to do a job they see as necessary while at the same time doing their best to support their family – I am going to give them a pass. They are not what is wrong. What is wrong is our as a society massive failure to address any of these massive ills – prison, ICE, and CoViD – until they all hit at the same time.

Instead, I am going to ask your help at this point to get guilty and incompetent Republicans out of government and replace them with innocent and competent Democrats, and THEN we can tackle all of these problems. Perhaps Alecto would like to take prisons, Megaera would consider auditing ICE, and Tisiphone would tackle the pandemic,along with our preparedness – or the lack of it – for another one or more.

Before I sign off, I would like to give one example of credit where credit is due. This article looks at numerous prisons in numerous places, and in the process they spoke with CoreCivic.

CoreCivic — which contracts with ICE to run La Palma and a number of other detention centers — denies that their facilities use solitary confinement.

“The claim that solitary confinement is used in our facilities is patently false,” CoreCivic spokesperson Ryan Gustin said. “Like most public and private secure facilities during this pandemic, we use separate housing units within our facilities to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 when someone is confirmed positive for the virus.”

As a corporation I would not trust CoreCivic as far as I could throw one of their facilities, barbed wire and all. However, as the spouse of an inmate in a CoreCivic facility, who regularly speaks with him on the phone, I can testify almost first hand that “separate housing units within our facilities” is exactly what they are using there, and that it has kept and is keeping him virus free. (The inmates do have masks and are encouraged to use them and to practice social distance also, within the housing units.) I probably should add this is not the only CoreCivic facility he has been in, and that this one is run in a way noticeably superior to the other. So this may in fact the only one of their facilities which is keeping that promise – but at least this one is.  He would not be any safer if he were at home, and in fact he would almost certainly be less safe here.

The Furies and I will be back.