(NewsNation) — A migrant girl with a historical past of psychological sickness spent a month in solitary confinement at a Florida detention middle and skilled abuse and neglect, a civil rights complaint filed final week alleges.
The lady, named solely as Ana, suffers from PTSD, anxiousness and melancholy, but her consumption types on the Baker County Detention Heart in Macclenny, Florida, categorized her as having no “main psychological sickness equivalent to . . . main depressive (dysfunction),” the ACLU of Florida stated within the grievance, co-filed with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights group.
Nonetheless, she was positioned in isolation in a “filthy” and “darkish” cell and not using a mattress, in keeping with the grievance, which was submitted to the Division of Homeland Safety’s Workplace of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Ana, a 33-year-old home violence and human trafficking survivor from an unspecified Spanish-speaking nation, arrived at Baker in Could 2023 below U.S. Immigrations and Enforcement custody.
Her consumption types incorrectly determine English as her spoken language, the grievance says. The language barrier and lack of translation companies exacerbated her abusive expertise within the detention middle.
The jail operates partially as an immigration detention facility and has confronted a number of civil rights fits since 2022.
This yr, a Baker officer was convicted of sexual battery on an inmate and sentenced to 25 years.
“Ana’s experiences at Baker illustrate lots of the most egregious patterns of abuse on the facility, together with sexual abuse within the type of voyeurism, abuse of solitary confinement,” the grievance says, “the improper use of drive and restraints, denial of psychological well being care, denial of entry to counsel, failure to offer language entry companies and incomplete and falsified data.”
A Florida lawmaker desires the power shut down.
“What I noticed was horrible. I noticed situations that no human ought to should reside in,” stated Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., in an Instagram video name with the ACLU of Florida on Monday.
Frost stated he visited the ICE facility earlier than.
“We’re speaking in regards to the medical unit. The issue right here too is a variety of that medical unit is getting used to deal with folks, or getting used as a solitary confinement,” Frost stated. “Do what’s proper — shut down this facility.”
Baker County Sheriff Scotty Rhoden praised the power’s employees in a Fb put up Monday from the Baker County Sheriff’s Workplace web page, saying, “I want to take this chance to precise my heartfelt gratitude to our devoted Detention employees. They do an impressive job, and I’m extremely pleased with their unwavering dedication to the residents of Baker County.”
