Northern Virginia Democrat Don Beyer is doing with respect to the Farmville Detention Center what we can’t seem to get Fifth District MAGA Congressman John McGuire, whose congressional district represents Farmville, to do.
Members of Congress play an important oversight role, or at least they should.
Somebody should tell McGuire, who is about to be gerrymandered back to political irrelevance.
“As you know, Congress passed legislation in July that provided $170 billion for immigration and border enforcement, including funding specifically allocated for detention and deportation operations. Therefore, CoreCivic should have sufficient access to resources to make upgrades and hire the staff needed to ensure the facility can meet the requisite medical and safety standards,” Beyer wrote in a letter addressed to Patrick Swindle, the president and COO at CoreCivic, the Brentwood, Tenn.,-based company that completed the purchase of the Farmville Detention Center in July.
In the letter, Beyer detailed his oversight visit to FDC, which is being used by ICE, as part of the Trump administration’s war on brown people, on Aug. 8.
At the time of the visit, it was clear that the medical staff were overwhelmed, could not relay to us the amount of medical staff that were employed by the facility, and that requests for medical attention were not met in a timely fashion, with some detainees waiting days for simple requests like medication for a headache (at which point such request would likely be moot). I understood that the facility was changing electronic health records and pharmacies as a result of the contract change, but the circumstances we witnessed could not simply be explained away by those stresses, and it was evident that the facility needed increased personnel and updated standards to meet the humanitarian standards required by law.
Beyer went on to note that he and his staff had to intervene in a medication access case, “which despite repeated phone and email communications, was only resolved after my in-person visit and confirmation with the detainee that it had not been resolved, despite communication to me otherwise.”
I got in touch with CoreCivic late Tuesday night, and the response back included a note that the company is working with ICE to provide a direct response to Beyer’s office.
Ryan Gustin, the senior director of public affairs at CoreCivic, provided me with the following statement:
The safety, health and well-being of the individuals entrusted to our care is our top priority. We take seriously our responsibility to adhere to all applicable federal detention standards in our ICE-contracted facilities, including our Farmville Detention Center (FDC). Our immigration facilities are monitored very closely by our government partners at ICE, and they are required to undergo regular review and audit processes to ensure an appropriate standard of living and care for all detainees.
CoreCivic is committed to providing access to high-quality medical and mental health care for all residents, whether as a direct provider of health services or in coordination with ICE’s Health Services Corp (IHSC) in facilities where they provide medical care. In facilities like FDC where CoreCivic is responsible for providing health care, onsite medical clinics are staffed by licensed health care professionals including physicians, nurse practitioners, psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health counselors and dentists who contractually meet the highest standards of care, as verified by multiple audits and inspections. All detainees have daily access to sign up for medical care, including mental health services. CoreCivic also ensures access to offsite care for residents by coordinating with staff, government partners, community physicians, hospitals and ambulatory care providers.
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Chris Graham
