"We couldn't tell if it was day or night, said one former detainee who spent 10 months at the facility and whom the Guardian is not naming for fear of retaliation from US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and the Geo Group, the private company that operates the detention center. The lights were on 24/7. We maybe saw the sun twice a week. Windows were coated in dark paint, and people made eye masks with their socks, he recalled."
"Immigrants detained in Alligator Alcatraz, the harsh immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades; at 26 Federal Plaza, the main detention facility in New York City; and at the Los Angeles federal courthouse on Spring Street, a holding center known as B-18, have declared in class-action lawsuits against officials with Ice and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that their cells lacked windows or were flooded with constant artificial light."
About 1,500 people at the Northwest Ice Processing Center in Tacoma live under perpetual fluorescent light, with windows painted over and lights on 24/7. Similar conditions are reported at multiple Ice facilities, including Alligator Alcatraz, 26 Federal Plaza, and the Los Angeles B-18 holding center, and detainees have reported identical conditions at Guantanamo Bay. Detainees describe losing track of time, making eye masks, and seeing the sun rarely. Excessive nighttime light and limited daytime brightness undermine human biological timekeeping, disrupting circadian rhythms and posing health and mental well-being risks for detained immigrants.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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