Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, South Georgia Immigrant Support Network filed a complaint with ICE officials condemning the inhumane conditions at the private Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia. This complaint is based, in large part, on the allegations of nurse-turned-whistleblower, Dawn Wooten.
Amongst the shocking allegations is that detained women, who often don’t speak English, were receiving hysterectomies at an extremely high rate without informed consent or medical necessity. This harkens back to the U.S. funded forced sterilization of Black, Puerto Rican, Chicano, and Native American women until the 1970s, as well as the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Therefore, these allegations are not as outrageous as they may seem and must be investigated with the utmost urgency. Ms. Wooten is incredibly brave for collecting information on the violations and reporting them to rights groups.
Ms. Wooten’s report is particularly important because it is an independent verification of what detainees have been alleging for years. Whistleblowers are important because they have inside knowledge often from the perpetrator’s side of violations, in this case, severe deprivation of human rights.
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