What part of “illegal” doesn’t Corrections Corp. of America understand?

2 November 2007

The dirty little secret is out: The T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center, a detention facility for immigrant families in Taylor, has employed undocumented workers, as well as contractors with criminal records. The revelation has put Williamson County, which administers the center for owner-operator Corrections Corporation of America, in an embarrassing legal bind. The infractions, ironic as they are, were cited in an official reprimand of CCA by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and addressed to County Judge Dan Gattis on May 23. The reprimand only came to light in October, when WilCo commissioners began airing concerns about mounting liability. But it was an alleged sexual assault of a detainee by a guard on May 19 that was the most likely source of the county’s jitters over liability. WilCo and CCA were to “ensure that such an incident not occur again,” the reprimand stated.

…overheated water scalded children at times. To punish children deemed unruly, guards “would turn up the air conditioning so that the room became very cold” and would turn off hot water for bathing, the report states. But the worst offense was that so-called errant parents and their children lived under the threat of being separated.

Full article, by Patricia J. Rutland in the Austin Chronicle

County Judge (the county’s presiding elected official) Dan Gaddis “… serves on the Board of Directors of Children at Heart Ministries, which includes the Baptist Children’s Home of Round Rock and serves on the board of Miracle Farm, a boys home in Brenham, Texas,” as he brags on his website. I take it the Baptist children and the boys in Brenham aren’t as abused as the children at Hutto. The judge’s service at the Baptist Children’s Home and at the Miracle Farm are — I take it — voluntary, and I’m sure he does care about children.

Which makes his utter failure to uphold his duty as “Constitutional Court Judge of Williamson County” and protect these children unfathomable.

Judge Gaddis’ office (901 S.E. Inner Loop, Georgetown Texas 79626 — telephone number 512-943-1550; FAX: 512 943-1662) has an “open door” policy. We welcome anyone who has a question…”