American Gulag - by Mark Dow (Paperback)

About the Book

The freelance writer and poet takes an unprecedented look inside the secret and repressive world of U.S. immigration prisons.

Book Synopsis

Before September 11, 2001, few Americans had heard of immigration detention, but in fact a secret and repressive prison system run by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has existed in this country for more than two decades. In American Gulag, prisoners, jailers, and whistle-blowing federal officials come forward to describe the frightening reality inside these INS facilities. Journalist Mark Dow's on-the-ground reporting brings to light documented cases of illegal beatings and psychological torment, prolonged detention, racism, and inhumane conditions. Intelligent, impassioned, and unlike anything that has been written on the topic, this gripping work of investigative journalism should be read by all Americans. It is a book that will change the way we see our country.

American Gulag takes us inside prisons such as the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, the Corrections Corporation of America's Houston Processing Center, and county jails around the country that profit from contracts to hold INS prisoners. It contains disturbing in-depth profiles of detainees, including Emmy Kutesa, a defector from the Ugandan army who was tortured and then escaped to the United States, where he was imprisoned in Queens, and then undertook a hunger strike in protest. To provide a framework for understanding stories like these, Dow gives a brief history of immigration laws and practices in the United States--including the repercussions of September 11 and present-day policies. His book reveals that current immigration detentions are best understood not as a well-intentioned response to terrorism but rather as part of the larger context of INS secrecy and excessive authority.

American Gulag exposes the full story of a cruel prison system that is operating today with an astonishing lack of accountability.

From the Back Cover

"Prisoners who have had no trial, guards who humiliate and assault them: It sounds like a scene from Stalin's U.S.S.R., but it is a reality in the United States today. American Gulag tells the horrifying story of men, women and children detained indefinitely by U.S. immigration officials as it has never been told before. It sounds an alarm for us all."--Anthony Lewis, author of Gideon's Trumpet

"Through the eyes and ears of immigration prisoners, their lawyers, and their jailers, Mark Dow sheds light on the netherworld of immigration detention, and compels us to confront how we treat the most vulnerable and voiceless among us. His work is a clarion call for justice from behind bars by those who have been sentenced to serve time without having ever committed a crime." David Cole, author of Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism

Review Quotes

""American Gulag stands in the best tradition of muckraking journalism. . . . Dow traveled from Bakersfield to Houston to Brooklyn to hear the stories of detainees and concerned BICE employees. He points to our government's failure to practice its most basic values, such as the presumption of innocence, the right of habeas corpus and the right to decent treatment. . . . Dow shows us that what we are discovering to our horror and shame in Iraq, our government has built right here at home."--"San Diego Union-tribune"

About the Author

Mark Dow is a freelance writer and poet whose work has appeared in the Miami Herald, The Progressive, Boston Review, Index on Censorship, Prison Legal News, and numerous literary publications. He is coeditor of Machinery of Death: The Reality of America's Death Penalty Regime (2002).