From the #ShutDownBerks Coalition (https://www.facebook.com/ShutDownBerksCoalition/):
On January 10th, 2023 the Berks County Detention Center in Leesport, PA ended the day with an empty facility and is anticipated to remain empty until its final closure on January 31st, 2023.
This is a victory for the immigrant community in Pennsylvania and beyond. After an 8-year campaign that began in 2015, when the 2014 sexual assault of a 19 year-old mother at Berks by a staff member sparked outrage among community members, the Shut Down Berks Coalition has demanded the permanent closure of the prison. The Coalition celebrated the announcement on November 30th, 2022 that the prison’s ICE contract with Berks County would terminate at the end of January, and now celebrates that this immigrant prison is finally empty and will close permanently.
But we recognize that being incarcerated by ICE simply for migrating is the result of a system designed to criminalize and dehumanize immigrants. The interconnected fights against deportations, detention and border militarization remain fundamental in the fight for immigrant liberation.
We look now to the future as one for healing and care. Berks County organizations, including Make the Road PA, Berks Stands Up and Sunrise Berks, are in active conversations with local elected officials and community leaders about converting the facility to one that provides much needed health and human services to local residents. A long overdue demand from Berks County community members.
The closure is a victory for every person who has ever been incarcerated at the prison as well as everyone who wants to end a profit-making system that criminalizes and abuses immigrants. Now is the time for President Biden to make good on his promise of a welcoming country. Here in Pennsylvania that means also closing the Moshannon immigrant prison, located near State College. It means ending the ICE contract at Clinton County, Pennsylvania. And it means ending the ICE contract at Pike County which saw scores of people held by ICE exposed and positive with COVID during the pandemic lockdown. Incarcerating immigrants is merely a racist and xenophobic tactic to deter people from migrating.
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