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Throwback Thursday: Deconstruction Detention: Structural Impunity and The Need for an Intervention by Maunica Sthanki

By immigrationprof

Kristina Campbell (UDC) recently pointed me to this throwback article by Maunica Sthanki (former UDC clinical instructor and current principal at The Raben Group)–Deconstruction Detention: Structural Impunity and The Need for an Intervention, 65 Rutgers L. Rev. 447 (2013). It’s fabulous. Check out the abstract:

This Article argues that the U.S. immigration detention system, the largest law enforcement operation in the country, operates with structural impunity resulting in the perpetual abuse of the detained population. There are no enforceable regulations and no accountability mechanisms to protect the nearly thirty thousand individuals held in the Department of Homeland Security’s (“DHS”) custody every day. A culture of abuse and “othering” of immigrant detainees has resulted in numerous reports of dehumanizing physical, sexual, and medical abuse. This structural impunity is exacerbated by the near total privatization of the detention system and corresponding restrictive Supreme Court decisions absolving private-prison companies of liability. This Article argues that the reform of the New Orleans Police Department in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina can be used as a model to transform the immigration detention system by providing accountability for abuse and oversight for civil rights violations.

The abstract, while compelling, does not adequately describe how utterly fascinating this article is. Sthannki highlights the problems with having immigration detention standards that are “nonbinding, nonregulatory, and unenforceable.” (p.464). Among the stories of detainee abuse in her article is one of a man who had to undergo penis amputation (totally worthy of the bold font) and who ultimately died because of grossly substandard medical care. Her solutions include strengthening accountability mechanisms (particularly criminal investigations and prosecution of detention abuses) combined with significant external oversight of detention practices (by, for example, the Department of Justice). 

This piece is all the more pressing today considering we are no longer in a place where DHS has 30K individuals in custody a day. We’re up to 50K+ immigrants in custody, with over 500K cycling through detention each year.

-KitJ