The handling of women detainees by the Miami District of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) exemplifies the lack of centralization, planning, and sound public policy that characterizes the United States detention system, especially as it affects asylum seekers. In 2000, the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children (Women’s Commission) conducted two site visits to Miami, Florida to assess the treatment that women were receiving in the Krome Service Processing Center, a large INS detention center in which dozens of women were detained on any given day, including those seeking asylum. This assessment, published in the report Behind Closed Doors: Abuse of Refugee Women at the Krome Detention Center (October 2000), documented widespread sexual, physical, emotional, and verbal abuse of women by Krome officers. Following the transfer of women asylum seekers from Krome to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center (TGK) in December 2000, the Women’s Commission twice assessed conditions at TGK, in February and June 2001.

Click here to download report in full

Thursday, June 4th, 2009