Whistleblower complaint alleges widespread abuse on migrant detainees
This article features Government Accountability Project and our client Dawn
Wooten and was originally published here.
A whistleblower report filed Monday with the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) alleges widespread medical malpractice at a Georgia immigration
detention center.
The malpractice allegations include accusations against the Irwin County
Detention Center (ICDC) of subpar COVID-19 treatment - including denial of
testing and treatment - and "red flags regarding the rate at which
hysterectomies are performed on immigrant women."
The report, filed by four human rights advocacy groups, is based on unnamed
detainee accounts and information provided by Dawn Wooten, an ICDC nurse
turned protected whistleblower.
"[Monday], we filed an [Office of Inspector General] complaint that includes
jarring information regarding the lack of medical care occurring inside
Irwin County Detention Center including medical staff deliberately shredding
medical request forms from detained immigrants without looking at them,
medical staff falsifying records, denial of COVID-19 testing for detained
immigrants, and very concerning accounts from detained immigrants and a
protected whistleblower regarding hysterectomies," said Priyanka Bhatt, a
staff attorney with Project South, one of the groups that filed the report.
"We hope that this complaint will illustrate the dire need to thoroughly
investigate and close the facility," said Bhatt.
According to Wooten and interviews with detainees, the women at ICDC have
expressed "concerns about how many women have received a hysterectomy while
detained at ICDC."
The detainees allege that women are sent to a gynecologist who seemingly
over-prescribes the procedure, and in some cases ICDC officials and the
doctor have failed to fully explain the consequences or receive full consent
from patients subjected to hysterectomies.
"Everybody he sees has a hysterectomy-just about everybody," said Wooten,
according to the report.
"These immigrant women, I don't think they really, totally, all the way
understand this is what's going to happen depending on who explains it to
them," said Wooten.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday reacted to the reports,
saying they recall "some of the darkest moments of our nation's history,
from the exploitation of Henrietta Lacks, to the horror of the Tuskegee
Syphilis Study, to the forced sterilizations of Black women that Fannie Lou
Hamer and so many others underwent and fought."
The 27-page report details a laundry list of accusations against the
facility, which houses detainees for Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE), and is run by LaSalle Corrections, a private prison operator.
LaSalle did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams said the agency does not comment on
matters before the Office of Inspector General (OIG), but "takes all
allegations seriously and defers to the OIG regarding any potential
investigation and/or results."
"That said, in general, anonymous, unproven allegations, made without any
fact-checkable specifics, should be treated with the appropriate skepticism
they deserve," wrote Williams.
The groups that filed the complaint say they've been documenting violations
at ICDC "for years."
The Government Accountability Project (GAP), an organization that calls
itself the "global leader in whistleblower advocacy," teamed up with Project
South on Wooten's complaint, which was referenced in the broader complaint
including testimony from the unnamed detainees.
The GAP/Project South complaint based on Wooten's individual testimony does
not include the detainee's allegations about hysterectomies, but lists
accusations regarding the facility's hygienic conditions and medical
services.
Those accusations include everything from undercounting COVID-19 cases,
deliberate denial of medical care to potential COVID-19 patients to refusing
tests for the disease, failing to comply with Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention requirements on personal protective equipment and social
distancing, and violating rules limiting transfer of immigration detainees
with COVID-19 symptoms.
Those violations mirror conditions at a Louisiana facility operated by
LaSalle, as well as findings by Scott Allen and Josiah Rich, who are
physician consultants for DHS on prison health care, according to a
statement by Project South and GAP.
"Ms. Wooten's whistleblowing disclosures reveal not only gross mismanagement
from LaSalle leadership, but actions that deliberately put the health of
detainees, workers, and the public at risk. It is up to DHS to heed the
warnings of employee whistleblowers like Ms. Wooten and take action to
enforce protective measures against the rampant spread of COVID-19," said
GAP staff attorney John Whitty.