Crime is bustling, private prisons are flourishing, and $1.7 billion dollars is being spent on immigrants improperly detained in over 350 poorly ran facilities. There are cheaper alternatives as the Detention Watch Network points out:

Being in violation of immigration laws is not a crime. It is a civil violation…The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the agency responsible for detaining immigrants.

Although DHS owns and operates its own detention centers, it also "buys" bed space from over 312 county and city prisons nationwide to hold the majority of those who are detained (over 67%).

The average cost of detaining an immigrant is approximately $122 per person/ per day. Alternatives to detention….costing as little as $12 per day….still yield an estimated 93% appearance rate before the immigration courts.  

About half of all immigrants held in detention have no criminal record at all….Torture survivors, victims of human trafficking, and other vulnerable groups can be detained for months or even years.

Immigrants in detention include families.…pregnant women, children, and individuals….who are suffering poor conditions and abuse in detention facilities across the country….being separated often for life while the private prison industry and county jailers are reaping huge profits.

While profits flow to private prison corporations and state and county governments, the multi billion-dollar detention industry overlooks poor conditions and other abuses served to immigrants. Decide for yourself who is truly benefitting from the cost of the system and at which costs to human rights.