Prince William jail facing crowding, costs, from ICE program
Prince William County Adult Detention Center
Published: April 8, 2008
MANASSAS, Va. (AP) _ Officials at the Prince William County jail say new local policies that require residency checks of inmates suspected of being in the country illegally have pushed crowding at the jail to an all-time high.
In recent letters to local officials and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, jail board Chairman Patrick Hurd said the new policies are straining jail employees and the jail is spending more than $220,000 per month to house prisoners elsewhere.
Under a partnership with ICE that began in July, local law enforcement officers get training in processing suspected illegal immigrants. ICE agents are supposed to pick up the suspects within 72 hours. Hurd, however, says agents are taking weeks to pick up the suspects.
ICE spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs says the agency is pledging to step up its commitment
Reader Reactions
John Lennon wrote in “Revolution” the words ‘we all want to see the plan’. Forget pro or con - WHAT IS THE PLAN for funding all these goals? If Vic is the same vic that ran for BOCS a number of years back, he knows funding doesn’t grow on trees. However great the idea, we need a funding source for it. The borders must be sealed before the ‘tipping point’ CAN BE REACHED. All else is spitting into the wind.
jmo, legal residence get a ticket and pay the fines. Legal residence break the laws and go to jail. you just basically said that we should not enforce the laws for illegals. there is NO logic in that. People complain about the cost of enforcing the law. those same people do not complain about the cost of the illegals on our local social systems. If there were no illegals, there would be no costs.
Chris Cummins writes that HSM has nothing to do with the resolution. That is not correct. Greg Letique helped co-write the resolution for John Stirrup, so he could present it to the supervisors. There was a lot of justifiable irritation about overcrowding etc. It could have been addressed by enforcing the zoning laws. Instead HSM and their ilk fanned the irritation into what appears to me to over the top fear, paranoia, and anger. Everyone agrees that criminals should be deported. But I’d like to know how many of these “rule of law” folks never break any rules. never speed, always come to a complete stop, etc. I do believe that many would cross a border if it meant their family could survive. PWC can not afford to do the federal govt’s job. The resolution needs to be rescinded. I want parks and fire protection.
Crikey! What a travesty! I suppose the ONLY alternative is to set criminals free!
This is only a temporary slowdown—and nothing more than that. It will be resolved. In the meantime, let’s give authorities in Prince William County and ICE credit for having enough sense to:
1. Recognize and deal with the severity of the problem of criminal illegal aliens running amok within our society
2. Be able to work out a fair and compassionate solution to the need to find enough detention facilities to hold an as yet undetermined number of illegal aliens until they can be processed through the judicial systems and returned to their own countries.
And barring any major additional invasion of illegal aliens, we will eventually reach a tipping point where we can reduce the number of detention facilities devoted to holding illegal aliens—because we will have fewer illegal aliens to process through the system.
Now that is something we can all look forward to achieving!
The Resolution is succeeding and it tears me up inside that the vocal illegal minority is suffering because of it. If illegal immigrants can come to the country for free, then my mom is owned a refund for doing it legally. Where is the justice when illegals skip bail, or get a warning for driving with no license and insurance or working under the table and not paying taxes of which 50% of illegals in Virginia are not paying according to a Virginia Commonwealth Institute study. HSM has nothing to do with the Resolution the laws and the police are supposed to be enforcing it and ICE is supposed to collect their prisoners for deportation. Taxes were going to increase with or without the Illegal Resolution because the economy is in a downturn. Chris Cummings
jejejeje I told you….this was all a big political show….to get elected…now they are and nothing is changing…only thing changing is the amount of tax that we pay…guess what??? there’s an increase on the way.
I would like to read comments more mature, the fact is , legal, illegal or American Citizens go to jail as well. The difference with legal residents and citizens is that we cant bail illegal immigrants because they will never show up in court. It does not exist a single case under this resolution that any illegal immigrant got lock up without any reason all those complaints are phony. Problems about shortage of bed is the same everywhere else .
At the risk of phrase-stealing from Bob Marshall, “I told you so.“
When the Police arrest a yound person for smoking pot do they worry about the cost or do they just enforce the law. When the Police devote a half a dozen officers to chase a shoplifter from a 7-11 and then arrest him do they worry about the cost to enforce the law vs the $5 item he stole.
The answer is no, cost does not enter into the enforcement of the laws.
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