Reports: Awful medical care in detention centers

Medical conditions at immigration detention centers are substandard and are “dangerously inadequate” according to a pair of advocacy groups.

The Florida Immigration Advocacy Center and Human Rights Watch each released reports on Tuesday that detail the substandard and woeful medical care provided at U.S. detention facilities.
Both groups gave a litany of problems in the centers from unskilled staff to bureaucratic red tape. Overcrowded facilities would be less of an issue if immigration officials were to halt detaining the elderly or those have serious health issues according to the reports.

As one eyewitness reportedly mentioned, some mentally disabled detainees received terrible treatment:

Marlene Jaggernauth, 43, who entered the U.S. 32 years ago as a lawful permanent resident from Trinidad, was arrested by ICE agents in 2003. Because of an old shoplifting charge, Little said, immigration agents labeled her an ''aggravated felon'' and jailed her. She was separated from four children, including 6-year-old twins and a 14- and 15-year-old…

Jaggernauth, who had a full-time job at Florida Atlantic University as an administrative assistant, said she witnessed deplorable conditions while detained, including an elderly German woman who appeared to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia.

''She was hearing voices,'' Jaggernauth said. ``Rather than help her, the guards joined in making fun of her.''

Image- miamiherald.com
Online Sources- South Florida Sun-Sentinel, miamiherald.com, Human Rights Watch, AP