The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia ICE Whistleblower Files Suit Against Private Prison Company
This article features Government Accountability Project whistleblower client, Dawn Wooten, and was originally published here.
A whistleblower who came forward with explosive allegations of medical abuse at a since shuttered immigrant jail in Ocilla is suing the private prison company that ran the detention center.
Dawn Wooten is a Tifton resident and a nurse by training. In late December, she filed a lawsuit against LaSalle Corrections, her former employer, claiming she was let go and retaliated against after her whistleblower report placed a bright, national spotlight on LaSalle’s track record in Georgia.
“I didn’t know what a whistleblower was. I did not know I was blowing a whistle … It was kind of like driving at night without night vision goggles,” Wooten told the AJC in December. “I did not know what the repercussions were going to be.”
As outlined in the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, the repercussions of coming forward were swiftly felt.
In the summer of 2020, Wooten raised concerns internally around the immigration jail’s COVID-19 protocols – and around the high rates of gynecological procedures performed on immigrant women detainees, which Wooten believed were taking place without detainees’ understanding or consent. Shortly afterwards, the nurse says she was reprimanded and demoted to a part-time, on-call position....
Park Filed Complaint Against President Lee Ahead of 2021 Election Jang Youngha Sentenced to One Year in Prison, Two Years Probation Confirmed The police have launched an investigation into Park Chu...