Mark Dow
American Gulag
Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons
$40.00, £27.95 hardcover
9780520239425
Available Now
$21.95, £14.95 paperback
9780520246690
Available Now
426 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 1 b/w photograph
June 2004, Available worldwide
Also in: American Studies; Law
June 2004, Available worldwide
Also in: American Studies; Law
Before September 11, 2001, few Americans had heard of immigration detention, but in fact a secret and repressive prison system run by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has existed in this country for more than two decades. In American Gulag, prisoners, jailers, and whistle-blowing federal officials come forward to describe the frightening reality inside these INS facilities. Journalist Mark Dow's on-the-ground reporting brings to light documented cases of illegal beatings and psychological torment, prolonged detention, racism, and inhumane conditions. Intelligent, impassioned, and unlike anything that has been written on the topic, this gripping work of investigative journalism should be read by all Americans. It is a book that will change the way we see our country.
American Gulag takes us inside prisons such as the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, the Corrections Corporation of America's Houston Processing Center, and county jails around the country that profit from contracts to hold INS prisoners. It contains disturbing in-depth profiles of detainees, including Emmy Kutesa, a defector from the Ugandan army who was tortured and then escaped to the United States, where he was imprisoned in Queens, and then undertook a hunger strike in protest. To provide a framework for understanding stories like these, Dow gives a brief history of immigration laws and practices in the United States—including the repercussions of September 11 and present-day policies. His book reveals that current immigration detentions are best understood not as a well-intentioned response to terrorism but rather as part of the larger context of INS secrecy and excessive authority.
American Gulag exposes the full story of a cruel prison system that is operating today with an astonishing lack of accountability.
American Gulag takes us inside prisons such as the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, the Corrections Corporation of America's Houston Processing Center, and county jails around the country that profit from contracts to hold INS prisoners. It contains disturbing in-depth profiles of detainees, including Emmy Kutesa, a defector from the Ugandan army who was tortured and then escaped to the United States, where he was imprisoned in Queens, and then undertook a hunger strike in protest. To provide a framework for understanding stories like these, Dow gives a brief history of immigration laws and practices in the United States—including the repercussions of September 11 and present-day policies. His book reveals that current immigration detentions are best understood not as a well-intentioned response to terrorism but rather as part of the larger context of INS secrecy and excessive authority.
American Gulag exposes the full story of a cruel prison system that is operating today with an astonishing lack of accountability.
"This readable and well documented book takes its audience inside the cells and behind the scenes of immigration detention. . . . This book is a significant work of investigative journalism that deserves credit as a scholarly contribution toward understanding the inner workings of immigration detention and the pain and suffering it produces on a daily basis."—Michael Welsh, Intl Migration Review
"An articulate call for public scrutiny. . . . Probably the most thorough and comprehensive account of immigration detention in the United States available, American Gulag is an accessible treatise, a tremendous source of information. . . . Dow provides information necessary for those who want to rise to the occasion of promoting transparency in the U.S. immigration detention system."—Prison Legal News
"A piercing insight into the workings of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service... a highly critical portrait of an organisation that he suggests is both secretive and excessively powerful."—The Times
"Dow's stories of brutality towards immigrants are recounted in 14 lively chapters in which the victims themselves make a powerful case for the American justice system to answer. The book has been upstaged by the dramatic illustrations of similar behaviour leaking out of Iraq, but its value, nonetheless, is to underline the continuity of the behaviour in Iraq with a longer history."—Irish Times
"Mark Dow's compelling book is a voyage into the heart of darkness that is the U.S. immigration prison system. American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons reveals everything that the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service -- doesn't want you to know. . . . Rather than sermons or rants, Dow tells the stories of the systems' victims, immigrants and jailers alike."—Miami Herald
"The stories he tells make for a stunning indictment of a system that has until now largely avoided public scrutiny. . . . Dow's efforts to expose its civil and human rights abuses should be applauded."—Newsday
"American Gulag stands in the best tradition of muckraking journalism. . . . Dow traveled from Bakersfield to Houston to Brooklyn to hear the stories of detainees and concerned BICE employees. He points to our government's failure to practice its most basic values, such as the presumption of innocence, the right of habeas corpus and the right to decent treatment. . . . Dow shows us that what we are discovering to our horror and shame in Iraq, our government has built right here at home."—San Diego Union-tribune
"Long before Abu Ghraib, and even before September 11th, detainees in America's immigration prisons were being stripped, beaten, and sexually abused. [Mark] Dow has spent years interviewing inmates, guards, and officials, and he gives a jarring account of a dangerously arbitrary system."—New Yorker
"An eye-opening resource, and a must-read for activists working to reform the system or to assist its victims or their families. Recommended."—Bill of Rights Defense Committee (http://www.bordc.org)
"An articulate call for public scrutiny. . . . Probably the most thorough and comprehensive account of immigration detention in the United States available, American Gulag is an accessible treatise, a tremendous source of information. . . . Dow provides information necessary for those who want to rise to the occasion of promoting transparency in the U.S. immigration detention system."—Prison Legal News
"A piercing insight into the workings of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service... a highly critical portrait of an organisation that he suggests is both secretive and excessively powerful."—The Times
"Dow's stories of brutality towards immigrants are recounted in 14 lively chapters in which the victims themselves make a powerful case for the American justice system to answer. The book has been upstaged by the dramatic illustrations of similar behaviour leaking out of Iraq, but its value, nonetheless, is to underline the continuity of the behaviour in Iraq with a longer history."—Irish Times
"Mark Dow's compelling book is a voyage into the heart of darkness that is the U.S. immigration prison system. American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons reveals everything that the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service -- doesn't want you to know. . . . Rather than sermons or rants, Dow tells the stories of the systems' victims, immigrants and jailers alike."—Miami Herald
"The stories he tells make for a stunning indictment of a system that has until now largely avoided public scrutiny. . . . Dow's efforts to expose its civil and human rights abuses should be applauded."—Newsday
"American Gulag stands in the best tradition of muckraking journalism. . . . Dow traveled from Bakersfield to Houston to Brooklyn to hear the stories of detainees and concerned BICE employees. He points to our government's failure to practice its most basic values, such as the presumption of innocence, the right of habeas corpus and the right to decent treatment. . . . Dow shows us that what we are discovering to our horror and shame in Iraq, our government has built right here at home."—San Diego Union-tribune
"Long before Abu Ghraib, and even before September 11th, detainees in America's immigration prisons were being stripped, beaten, and sexually abused. [Mark] Dow has spent years interviewing inmates, guards, and officials, and he gives a jarring account of a dangerously arbitrary system."—New Yorker
"An eye-opening resource, and a must-read for activists working to reform the system or to assist its victims or their families. Recommended."—Bill of Rights Defense Committee (http://www.bordc.org)
"Prisoners who have had no trial, guards who humiliate and assault them: It sounds like a scene from Stalin's U.S.S.R., but it is a reality in the United States today. American Gulag tells the horrifying story of men, women and children detained indefinitely by U.S. immigration officials as it has never been told before. It sounds an alarm for us all."—Anthony Lewis, author of Gideon's Trumpet
"Through the eyes and ears of immigration prisoners, their lawyers, and their jailers, Mark Dow sheds light on the netherworld of immigration detention, and compels us to confront how we treat the most vulnerable and voiceless among us. His work is a clarion call for justice from behind bars by those who have been sentenced to serve time without having ever committed a crime." David Cole, author of Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism
"Through the eyes and ears of immigration prisoners, their lawyers, and their jailers, Mark Dow sheds light on the netherworld of immigration detention, and compels us to confront how we treat the most vulnerable and voiceless among us. His work is a clarion call for justice from behind bars by those who have been sentenced to serve time without having ever committed a crime." David Cole, author of Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism
Prologue: "Let This Be Home"
1. Invisibility, Intimidation, and the INS
2. September 11: Secrecy, Disruption, and Continuity
3. Another World, Another Nation: Miami's Krome Detention Center
4. "Enforcement Means You're Brutal"
5. The World's First Private Prison
6. "Keeping Quiet Means Deny": A Hunger Strike in Queens
7. The Art of Jailing
8. "Criminal Aliens" and Criminal Agents
9. Siege, Shackles, Climate, Design
10. "Speak to Every Media": Resistance, Repression, and the Making of a Prisoner
11. Good and Evil in New England
12. Out West: Philosophy and Despair
13. Dead Time
14. Mariel Cubans: Abandoned, Again and Again
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
1. Invisibility, Intimidation, and the INS
2. September 11: Secrecy, Disruption, and Continuity
3. Another World, Another Nation: Miami's Krome Detention Center
4. "Enforcement Means You're Brutal"
5. The World's First Private Prison
6. "Keeping Quiet Means Deny": A Hunger Strike in Queens
7. The Art of Jailing
8. "Criminal Aliens" and Criminal Agents
9. Siege, Shackles, Climate, Design
10. "Speak to Every Media": Resistance, Repression, and the Making of a Prisoner
11. Good and Evil in New England
12. Out West: Philosophy and Despair
13. Dead Time
14. Mariel Cubans: Abandoned, Again and Again
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Click here to read an interview with Mark in MotherJones.com
Gustavus Myers Outstanding Books Award, Gustavus Myers Awards
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