Immigration detention centers in California reveal lack of mental health care

A recent report by the California Department of Justice reveals that the lack of medical care in immigration detention centers, in addition to the fact that almost 75% of the detainees did not have criminal records.

For more details on the report, listen to Daniela Rodriguez, UC Berkeley scholar and Radio Bilingüe reporter.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta recently released a comprehensive report on the state’s immigration detention centers. This is the fourth report of its kind produced by the Department of Justice on the facilities where federal authorities detain non-citizens. Vilma Palma Solano, Supervisory Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Enforcement Section, explains.

 This report is part of California Assembly Bill AB 103. When this bill passed and went into effect we have been doing reviews of the immigration detention centers that are in the state and making reports.

That state law, dubbed AB 103, was passed in 2017 with the purpose of improving oversight of immigration detention centers. The new report focuses on the mental health of people detained in California’s six privately operated lockups as conditions of confinement are said to affect the emotional well-being of detainees. Even so, one of the inspections conducted, in 2023, found substandard conditions in the detention centers. Deputy Prosecutor Vilma Palma Solano.

The medical and mental health records had many inaccuracies or were not all complete. So it means that when someone goes to receive medical or mental health services they are not able to implement proper treatment plans.

One of the reasons that led to the creation of AB 103 in California was reports of suicides occurring in detention centers, such as the tragic case in Adelanto in 2017, Vilma notes. Researchers found serious flaws in suicide prevention and intervention inside prisons.

It’s very important that they have certain strategies in place so that they can’t harm themselves. And what we found is that the systems that they have in these detention centers are also not adequate for the high risk of suicide.

Moreover, the report notes that the mental health diagnoses that detainees received from doctors in the detention centers were not consistent in their medical reports, says Deputy Prosecutor Vilma Palma Solano …..

 One doctor would see a person and give him a diagnosis and then another person would come and see him and give him another diagnosis that was not the same diagnosis.

Another problem they found is that in many detention centers they did not do mental health exams before putting someone in solitary confinement, something that is required by law, says Vilma….

 Because if that person presents any risk, because they have mental health issues at times, it’s not appropriate for them to be put in solitary confinement.

Since this project began, Vilma says there has been at least one documented suicide in these centers. And the way patients are cared for does not help. When the patients’ health declines, they go to the hospital. But when they return, sometimes their treatment or medications are improperly changed, and then their condition worsens again. This is a cycle that repeats itself over and over again. Moreover, it is a risky cycle, says the state official.

 Many come and they are asking for asylum and they get to the border and they are detained, but many of them have trauma and being detained doesn’t help them. And also these places, many of them don’t have access to therapy.

In the Central Valley, two centers notoriously mentioned in the report are Mesa Verde in Bakersfield and Golden State in Kern County. There, some detainees reported invasive and aggressive searches, including instances of sexual assault. At the Golden State Correctional Facility, in addition, there were documented cases of improper disciplinary treatment.

One person told us that he had been disciplined for refusing to eat food that did not fit his religious diet, and three attorneys told us that six of their clients had been disciplined for filing complaints about segregation conditions. And also for participating in a hunger strike.

The law mandating such investigations and reports by the Department of Justice remains in effect until 2027. Vilma Palma Solano emphasizes that the goal of these reports is to give visibility to what is happening inside the immigrant detention facilities in the hope that those in power, such as the federal Congress, will take real steps to make changes and improve detention conditions.

Thanks to Daniela Rodriguez, UC Berkeley intern and Radio Bilingüe reporter, for this report.