What are detention centers like, and where are they?
Detention centers are not particularly noticeable. You could drive by them and not suspect what they are. Many of them are privately run. They tend to be cold and most don’t have outdoor facilities for detainees. A lot of the people who have immigration court in Chicago are sent to McHenry County Jail, others to Tri-County Detention Center in southern Illinois or Kenosha or Dodge County, Wisconsin. More recently, people have been sent to Jefferson County, Illinois, or Boone County, Kentucky. People get sent to Kentucky because their cases are going to be pending for a while (like a pending appeal). They send them further away if they’re going to be there longer? So that’s even harder on family members. And also on the attorney contact! Boone County has had a lot of complaints. The medical conditions there—I had someone calling me for a while every week saying, “I don’t get my medication.” This particular person had a chronic ulcer and severe depression and was not getting necessary med
