Hunger Strike at Stewart Detention Center due to maggots in food

In state where most people claim to be Christin, in this supposedly Christian country.

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Written By: GLORIA TATUM6-28-2014

(APN) ATLANTA -- Hundreds of Inmates at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia staged a hunger strike because of deplorable conditions at the Center. It began last week when inmates refused to eat spoiled food with maggots in the beans and instead threw the food away.

"They were locked up and pepper strayed because of the hunger strike, that's why it only lasted one day," a family member told Atlanta Progressive News.

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Reports from inmates and family members tell a different story. Numerous reports have surfaced about unsanitary conditions in the kitchen, which is infested with roaches; and maggots, which have been found in the food. Food that is several days old and unfit to eat is served to inmates.

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"My husband has to beg for toilet paper. They are screamed at and treated like animals. They don't want to give them hygiene products, so they can keep clean," a family member told APN.

Stewart is owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of Americans (CCA,) a for-profit private prison, and manages everything but health care at Stewart. The health care is managed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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"Obviously there is a profit motive there to cut down on the cost of operating the facility and maximize the profits for the corporation. Immigrants work in the kitchen and perform chores and labor at the facility. Instead of paying minimum wage, the corporation pays them one to three dollars a day… often not providing safe working conditions, which in the past has lead to injuries for immigrants in the kitchen," Azadeh Shahshahani, National Security/Immigrants' Rights Project Director, American Civil Liberties Union/Georgia, told APN.

CCA's revenue rose more than 60 percent over the last decade, and its stock price climbed to more than 30 dollars from less than three dollars a share.

Last year, the company made 301 million dollars in net income, according to earning reports, as reported in the New York Times newspaper.

The medical care is not any better. With only one doctor for 1,750 men. The medical department is understaffed and it often takes days or weeks for medical requests to be answered, if at all. The closest hospital is in Columbus, Georgia, almost one hour away.

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Stewart has been the site of protests for seven years, as reported several times by APN. Hundreds of people make the pilgrimage to the remote southwest Georgia facility each year to protest the inhumane conditions. It has been named by Detention Watch Network and other national organizations as one of the ten worst facilities in the country.

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