Florida Immigration Jail Under Scrutiny

"Hundreds of men and women who have committed minor offenses, such as driving without a license, or no apparent crime at all, are locked up for weeks and months in a little-known central Broward County facility run by a private company.  They are immigrants, accused of entering the country without legal authorization or staying longer than permitted.  Their treatment — at the hands of the federal government and the Boca Raton-based firm hired to keep them at the 700-bed Broward Transitional Center — has become a growing controversy since July, when a detainee went on hunger strike and activists staged protests demanding a halt to the confinement and deportation of foreigners with no serious criminal histories." - Megan O'Matz, Sun Sentinel, Jan. 5, 2013.