ICE REVIEW OF IMMIGRANT’S SUICIDE FINDS FALSIFIED DOCUMENTS, NEGLECT, AND IMPROPER CONFINEMENT – By José Olivares (The Intercept) / Oct 23 2021
An internal review of Efraín Romero de la Rosa’s death in ICE custody found almost two dozen policy violations during his stint in detention.
MEDICAL AND SECURITY staff at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center violated numerous agency rules when dealing with a detainee with mental illness, according to an internal agency investigation. Efraín Romero de la Rosa, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, took his own life after 21 days in solitary confinement in Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center in July 2018.
Following Romero’s death, ICE’s External Reviews and Analysis Unit, a nominally impartial body within the agency, opened an investigation that found that staff had falsified documents; improperly dealt with Romero’s medication; neglected to follow proper procedures for his care; and improperly placed him in disciplinary solitary confinement — despite multiple warnings of Romero’s declining mental health.
“The real question is, why would the government imprison an individual with a documented mental health illness in a deadly detention center?”
“The real question is, why would the government imprison an individual with a documented mental health illness in a deadly detention center?” said Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director of the Atlanta-based civil rights nonprofit Project South, after reviewing the report. “And why would they repeatedly subject him to solitary confinement instead of providing him with the mental health care that he desperately needed?”
CONTINUE > https://theintercept.com/2021/10/23/ice-review-neglect-stewart-suicide-corecivic/
