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Suffolk County sheriff to stop housing ICE detainees
By adamg on Tue, 10/08/2019 - 6:52pm
Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins is not breaking with ICE out of any newfound moral qualms, but because he needs the space ICE Is now renting at the South Bay jail to house 200 to 250 women prisoners.
In a statement, Tompkins says the beds now used to house ICE detainees will be used for a program in which the jail will take in women, both those awaiting trial and those serving sentences, from Plymouth, Essex,and Norfolk counties, through gender-specific programs, including Community Re-Entry for Women:
We are ending our contract with ICE to reallocate our resources towards helping local women to address long-standing issues that have contributed to their involvement in the criminal justice system. Our gender-specific programming, which is among the best in the country, allows us to address these issues, which include domestic violence, sexual exploitation and substance use disorders, to name a few.
Suffolk County has rented space to ICE since 2003. Tompkins expects the last of the ICE detainees to leave by mid-December.
WBZ reports. the director of the local ICE removal office is disappointed and says that the move will force ICE to house people in ICE custody away from Boston.
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Comments
Code for:
This is basic code for: “I’m running for Mayor”. Which begs the question... does he know something we don’t know?
Here Comes the Haters
First. I would like to say, I don't care about the relationship or non relationship with the immigration. For this article, immigration enforcement is not the most important aspect of the article.
We should be excited with the new prospects of positive Correctional programming. I am very happy about the, positive, out of the box creative Correctional programming. Only focusing on the immigration aspect of this decision is short-sighted.
I am so proud of sheriff Tompkins deciding to move forward with various rehabilitative programming with inside the correctional facility.
This, of course, doesn't mean ICE is stopping.
Where will the new detention center be? Long Island?
Nope
A little googling will tell you that ICE detention facilities need to meet certain requirements. In Massachusetts there are three: Suffolk County, Bristol County, Plymouth County and Franklin County. That's it.
they also need written agreements
Bristol, Barnstable and Plymouth counties as well as Mass Corrections have 287g detention agreements that they recently renewed. Those allow for local facilities, staff and resources to be used on what should be federal tasks.
...even though the SJC said they can't do that.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2017/07/24/sjc-ruling-sreynoun-lunn-case
Another thing are the WSO agreements that are new this year and may provide a loophole for other counties to participate even in uncertain legal terrain.