American Gulag
Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons

Before September 11, 2001, few Americans had heard of immigration detention, but in fact a secret and repressive prison system run by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service has existed in this country for many years. This book exposes the full story of a cruel prison system that is operating with an astonishing lack of accountability.

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.

Prologue: "Let This Be Home"
1. Invisibility, Intimidation, and the INS
2. September 11: Secrecy, Disruption, and Continuity 3. Another World, Another Nation: Miami's Krome Detention Center 4. "Enforcement Means You're Brutal"
5. The World's First Private Prison
6. "Keeping Quiet Means Deny": A Hunger Strike in Queens 7. The Art of Jailing
8. "Criminal Aliens" and Criminal Agents
9. Siege, Shackles, Climate, Design
10. "Speak to Every Media": Resistance, Repression, and the Making of a Prisoner 11. Good and Evil in New England 12. Out West: Philosophy and Despair 13. Dead Time 14. Mariel Cubans: Abandoned, Again and Again Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography
Index