cannabisnews.com: Ex-Guards Tested Positive for Drug Use!





Ex-Guards Tested Positive for Drug Use!
Posted by FoM on April 16, 1999 at 11:05:24 PT
Source: Bergen Record on Line
Two guards who recently quit their jobs at the federal immigration detention center in Elizabeth tested positive for drug use two weeks after a marijuana cigarette was found in a center dormitory, immigration authorities said Thursday.
One of the guards who tested positive had access to that dorm, officials said. In all, 39 guards were tested -- 32 who had access to the dorm, and seven who were chosen at random. Another guard quit his job rather than take the test, officials said.The guards are employees of Corrections Corporation of America, the Nashville-based private prison operator that runs the facility under contract with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Calls to CCA officials in Elizabeth and Nashville were not returned Thursday.Oluwole Aboyade, a Nigerian college student who is seeking asylum, said he and his dorm mates found the partially smoked marijuana cigarette two weeks ago and turned it over to the INS. Aboyade said the cigarette was lying on the floor by the area where guards sit.The positive drug tests are just the latest bad news for CCA.On Sunday, The Record reported that the FBI is investigating allegations of human rights violations -- including use of excessive force -- at the Elizabeth facility. Immigration authorities said they also asked the FBI to investigate the withholding of information and tampering with videotape evidence of alleged abuse against Aboyade and another detainee on Jan. 28.Aboyade has since been transferred to a prison in rural Pennsylvania; human rights advocates say the move was retribution for the college student's public complaints about abuses at the New Jersey facility.Immigration officials said, however, the move to the Pennsylvania prison -- a four-hour drive from Elizabeth -- was made out of concerns for Aboyade's safety.Aboyade said in a telephone interview that when he arrived at York County Prison on Tuesday, he was housed with a drug offender. Authorities said that Aboyade, 21, does not have a criminal record.On Thursday morning, he was moved to a separate area in the prison where INS detainees without criminal records are held, said Lynn Durko, spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Newark.He should have been placed there immediately, authorities said. But INS officials in Newark did not notify INS officials in Philadelphia of his estimated time of arrival, so no immigration agent was waiting at the York County facility to process him, authorities said.York County Prison officials "did not have all of the information at the time," said Carl Rusnok, spokesman for the INS Philadelphia district, which oversees INS detainees at the York County Prison. "To err on the side of caution, they have to assume that everyone coming in is -- unless they have information otherwise -- they have to assume the person is a criminal."There are 620 INS detainees at the prison, which can house up to 750 at a time, Rusnok said. Usually 85 percent to 90 percent of those are criminals, he said. Salah Dafali, the other alleged victim of the Jan. 28 incident, is also being held at York County Prison.The INS' placement of asylum seekers in criminal jails is a point of bitter debate. Critics of the detention system notes that prisons have even less INS oversight than privatized immigration centers. And practices at York County Prison reveal the starkly different treatment that asylum seekers and convicted criminals receive.Deputy Warden Dennis Bowen said convicted inmates may be eligible to go on furlough during holidays so they can be with relatives. They may qualify for work release programs, which enable them to leave the prison -- unescorted -- to go to a job."A husband or wife picks them up from the jail, or even a fellow worker can, and then just bring them back," Bowen said. York County Prison, Bowen said, holds criminals convicted of everything from minor offenses to murder.Detained asylum seekers, who arrive at U.S. ports of entry without proper documents, are not entitled to participate in such release programs.Generally, they may qualify only for parole, which allows them to be released to family and friends while awaiting an immigration judge's decision on their asylum claim.Copyright © 1999 Bergen Record Corp. 
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