Recommendations

solitary confinement is not an effective way of keeping suicidal people safe, as Karnes itself saw in 2020 when a father committed suicide when in solitary.69

It is common practice for ICE to transfer detained people from detention center to detention center, often with little warning or justification, effectively disrupting people’s ties to the community, legal advocates, and other resources.70 Unfortunately, time in detention was not limited to the Karnes prison for many women. By the end of September 2019, ICE began transferring women to various detention facilities throughout the country; those who were not transferred were either released or deported. RAICES often received no notice of where clients were transferred, although ICE has an obligation to report transfers to the attorney of record. Through RAICES’ staff efforts, some women were located, a large number of whom were transferred to Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez, Mississippi.

Transfer meant that women were separated from legal counsel at critical points in their cases with insufficient time to have final meetings with RAICES or receive documents related to their cases. This separation was further compounded by the remoteness of many detention centers, as mentioned above. Obtaining new legal counsel was not a realistic option for many. For more information on the women that were transferred to Adams County Correctional Center, see Stories From Natchez.

69. Hamed Aleaziz, An Immigrant Has Killed Himself In An ICE Family Detention Ctr., Buzzfeed News, Mar. 19, 2020, https://www. buzzfeednews.com/article/hamedaleaziz/immigrant-man-suicide-ice-detention 70. N/A, Locked Up Far Away: The Transfer of Immigrants to Remote Detention Ctrs. In The U.S., Human Rights Watch, Dec. 2, 2009, https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/12/02/locked-far-away/transfer-immigrants-remote-detention-centers-united-states