<\/p>\n
\u201cMale detainee needs<\/span> to go out due to head trauma,\u201d an employee at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s detention center in Georgia tells a 911 operator. <\/p>\n The operator tells the employee at Stewart Detention Center that there are no ambulances available. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s already out \u2014 on the last patient y\u2019all called us with,\u201d the operator says.<\/p>\n \u201cIs there any way you can get one from another county?\u201d the caller asks.<\/p>\n \u201cI can try,\u201d the operator says. \u201cI can\u2019t make any promises, but I can try.\u201d <\/p>\n The call was one of dozens from the ICE detention facility seeking help with medical emergencies during the first 10 months of the second Trump administration, a sustained period of high call volume from the jail not seen since 2018.<\/p>\n Emergency calls were made to 911 at least 15 times a month from Stewart Detention Center for six months in a row as of November 1.<\/p>\n Like the call concerning a detainee\u2019s head trauma from April 1, emergency dispatch records show that the ambulance service in Stewart County, Georgia, where the detention center is located, has had to seek help outside the county more than any time in at least five years \u2014 including three instances in November alone.<\/p>\n The burden on rural Stewart County\u2019s health care system is \u201cunsustainable,\u201d said Dr. Amy Zeidan, a professor of emergency medicine at Atlanta\u2019s Emory University who researches health care in immigration detention.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are going to die if they don\u2019t get medical care,\u201d said Zeidan. \u201cAll it takes is one person who needs a life-saving intervention and doesn\u2019t have access to it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are going to die if they don\u2019t get medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n This continuous barrage of calls for help with acute medical needs reflects increased detainee populations without changes to medical staffing and capacities, experts told The Intercept. Shifting detainee populations, they said, may also be exacerbating the situation: Older immigrants and those with disabilities or severe health issues used to be more frequently let out on bond as their cases were resolved, but ICE\u2019s mass deportation push has led to an increase in their detention.<\/p>\n With the number of people in immigration detention ballooning nationwide, health care behind bars has become an issue in local and state politics. In Washington state, for instance, legislators passed a law last year giving state-level authorities more oversight of detention facilities. A recent court ruling granted state health department officials access<\/a> to a privately operated ICE detention center to do health inspections. (A spokesperson from Georgia\u2019s health department did not answer questions about the high volume and types of calls at Stewart.)<\/p>\n 911 calls from Stewart included several for \u201chead trauma,\u201d such as one case where an inmate was \u201cbeating his head against the wall\u201d and another following a fight. <\/p>\n Impacts of the situation are hard to measure in the absence of comprehensive, detailed data, but they extend both to Stewart\u2019s detainee population \u2014 which has increased<\/a> from about 1,500 to about 1,900 during the Trump administration \u2014 and to the surrounding, rural county. (ICE did not respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n The data on 911 calls represent what Dr. Marc Stern, a consultant on health care for the incarcerated, called \u201ca red flag.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Data obtained by The Intercept through open records requests shows that the top four reasons for 911 calls since the onset of the second Trump administration have been chest pains and seizures, with the same number of calls, followed by stomach pains and head injuries.<\/p>\n Neither written call records nor recordings of the calls themselves offer much insight into the causes of injuries. One cause of head traumas, though, could be fights between detainees, said Amilcar Valencia, the executive director of El Refugio,<\/a> a Georgia-based organization that works with people held at Stewart and their families and loved ones.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a secret that Stewart detention center is overcrowded,\u201d he said. \u201cThis creates tension.\u201d <\/p>\n Issues such as access to phones for calls to attorneys or loved ones can lead to fights, he said.<\/p>\n Another issue may be self-harm, suggested testimony from Rodney Scott, a Liberian-born Georgia resident of four decades who has been detained in Stewart since January. One day in September, Scott, who is a double amputee and suffers high blood pressure and other health issues, said he saw a fellow detainee climb about 20 stairs across a hall from him and jump over a railing, landing several stories below. <\/p>\n \u201cHe hit his head,\u201d Scott said. \u201cIt was shocking to see someone risk his life like that.\u201d <\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t know what happened to the man.<\/p>\n On another day, about a month earlier, Scott saw a man try to kill himself with razors. <\/p>\n \u201cHe went in, cut himself with blades, after breakfast,\u201d Scott said. \u201cThere was a pool of blood,\u201d he said. \u201cIt looked like a murder scene.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to interpersonal tensions, large numbers of detainees in crowded conditions can strain a facility\u2019s medical capacities. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople are becoming sicker than what the system can handle.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a mismatch between the number of people and health workers,\u201d said Joseph Nwadiuko, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania who researches the immigration detention system. \u201cPeople are becoming sicker than what the system can handle. The complexity of patients is above and beyond what Stewart is prepared for.\u201d<\/p>\n CoreCivic, the company that operates Stewart, is currently advertising<\/a> to hire a psychiatrist, a dental assistant, and two licensed practical nurses at the detention center. (The company did not respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
Illness and Injuries<\/h2>\n
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