The subject of media attention in recent months, the Mesa Verde center in Bakersfield and Golden State Annex center in McFarland in Kern County are privately run, for-profit centers contracted to the GEO Group, a company operating for-profit private prisons across the U.S.
According to Genna Beier, a San Francisco deputy public defender who has represented several detainees at Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex, these facilities have a voluntary work program for detained individuals with a wage of $1 per day. These programs, however, are far from voluntary, instead presenting detained individuals with what Beier says is a"false choice."
Jose Ruben Hernandez Gomez, who spoke at the protest, is one of the detainees who led the hunger strike at Mesa Verde. In retaliation for the strike, he says ICE officials threw him on the ground, dragged and handcuffed him before transferring him to another ICE facility in Texas. Instead, officers gave him two large burgers and a large platter of fries, which he says was too many calories for his body to handle after 21 days of not eating.
She ended her speech portraying a dysfunctional grievance system through which detainees can file complaints with these facilities. Their complaints, she said, are often marked as unfounded as soon as they are submitted.