June 1, 2004
Freelance writer Dow (coeditor, Machinery of Death) takes readers on a tour of life inside the jails in which the U.S. government detains illegal immigrants. The book starts with the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, where many Haitian refugees are held. Drawing on his ten years' experience working and visiting there, as well as extensive interviews with detainees, Dow reveals brutality, indifference by government officials, and the forced medication of detainees. He visits centers in Houston and Denver and explores the use of private contractors to serve as jailers. He also includes profiles of individual detainees and an overview of U.S. immigration law. The author's interviews with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now split up and part of Homeland Security) officials and jailers are a plus. While it is clear that the author deplores both the government's policies and the conditions under which detainees are held, he does an admirable job of presenting both sides of the issue. Like the infamous Soviet gulag system, argues the author, American immigration prisons are cruel, underground, and immune from review. The comparison to Soviet political prisons may seem extreme, but the author makes his points, and the book is well written and cogent. Recommended for large collections.-Harry Charles, Attorney at Law, St. Louis
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