Sen. Pérez introduces bill to increase oversight of detention facilities

Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena) introduced SB 995 last week, a bill aimed at strengthening state oversight of private detention facilities.

The Masuma Khan Justice Act is named after a 64-year-old Altadena resident who was held in Kern County’s California City Detention Facility under inhumane conditions. If the bill passes, facilities could face fines of up to $25,000 for each day and each violation, along with the potential suspension or revocation of their state operating permits, if they do not comply with health, safety and labor standards.

“We are confronting a humanitarian crisis,” Pérez said during a press conference in Los Angeles on Friday. “Across this country inside private immigration detention centers, people are being denied their basic rights. People are being denied access to legal counsel, they are being denied medical care, they are being denied something as simple and as essential as soap and water and safe food.”

Immigrants have been facing indefinite detention, a reversal of longstanding policy, and while inside have been dealing with dire conditions including food that has gone bad, toilets that don’t work and overall dirty conditions, many outlets including PBS have reported.

“While I was detained at Core Civic's California City facility, I experienced fear and lasting trauma that no one should have to experience,” Khan said in a prepared statement. “I was not given vital medications, proper meals, and often, access to communicate with my family and attorneys. The lack of transparency and accountability at these facilities can only be prevented when third parties, including legislators and regulatory agencies, get fully involved.”

As of February, the number of people in U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was over 70,000 and 10 deaths in ICE custody have been reported since January.

A recent federal class lawsuit was filed against the GEO Group, one of the biggest for-profit private prison corporations that operates ICE centers including the Adelanto Processing Center. The filing claims the corporation has been violating the constitutional rights of the thousands of detainees in its centers.

“This legislation is grounded in a simple principle,” Pérez said. “If detention centers operate in California, they must meet California standards for safety, dignity and human rights. Right now that oversight is not strong enough.”

California counties have the authority to inspect the detention centers in their jurisdiction, but so far, only three of the four counties that have detention centers have inspected them. Lawmakers, including California Sen. Alex Padilla, have been denied access while attempting to perform oversight visits to detention centers.

Pérez pointed to first-hand reports that have come out of the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, detailing inhumane conditions and what Perez called “messages of desperation.” LA Taco first reported detainees were throwing small hygiene bottles with notes attached over the fences of the detention center, which were then picked up by organizers monitoring the situation.

“Accountability prevents abuses and systematic neglect. Transparency and independent oversight protects both people and institutions,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, a co-sponsor of SB 995. “Detention must never mean the loss of basic human rights and should never, never, endanger lives.”

With the Department of Homeland Security spending billions to purchase industrial warehouses across the country to be turned into new detention centers, Pérez said the need for SB 995 and additional oversight capabilities is “only becoming more urgent.”

“This bill makes sure that the state of California can properly monitor the health, the safety and the living conditions of people who are detained,” said Assemblymember Mark González (D-Los Angeles), a co-author of SB 955. “These are not statistics, these are our neighbors, these are our friends.”