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Calls for probe of GEO Group immigration jail in Queens

December 09, 2011 (1 min read)

"The city public advocate is joining several Queens elected officials in another call to the federal government to stop its association with a private group that has been running a controversial immigration detention center in southeast Queens.  Bill de Blasio, along with City Councilman Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) and U.S. Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica) and Joe Crowley (D-Jackson Heights), sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder last Thursday that criticized the U.S. Department of Justice for refusing to investigate the GEO Group, which runs 7,000 of 32,000 detention beds in the United States, including one in Springfield Gardens.  The company has been accused of treating its prisoners with several unjust practices, including long periods of solitary confinement.  “This is not complicated: Government should not do business with companies that violate basic human rights,” de Blasio said in a statement." Times Ledger, Dec. 9, 2011.