While CCA Gives Convicted Criminals ESPN and Pizza in West Tennessee, It Imprisons Innocent Children for Profit in Central Texas

According to the Texas Observer blog, Corrections Corporation of America--which was spotlighted in this morning's Tennessean--is getting paid for incarcerating the innocent children of immigrants who have fled violence or persecution in their home countries and landed in Texas. In spite of the fact that CCA is billing the the US immigration enforcement agency $3 million a month for detaining these children, detainees of all ages tell the Observer:

• Kids spend 10-11 hours each day in a cell where they are not allowed to have toys or even crayons.
• Guards frequently threaten children with separation from their parents.
• Just like a “regular” prison, there’s no privacy in the cells. Kids have to go to the bathroom in front of their parents and vice versa, a deeply humiliating experience in some cultures.
• Sick children often do not receive prompt or adequate medical care.
• The food is unpalatable and foreign; meals last only 10-20 minutes. As a result, kids frequently undergo rapid weight loss.

Our tax money is apparently paying private corrections corporations for mistreating children and spoiling convicted criminals.