DHS OIG Releases Report on Conduct at Irwin County Detention Center, Target of Whistleblower Complaints in 2020
This article features Government Accountability Project’s whistleblower client, Dawn Wooten, and was originally published here.
On January 3, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report entitled “Medical Processes and Communication Protocols Need Improvement at Irwin County Detention Center.” The report stemmed from whistleblower complaints about medical neglect inside the facility, including allegations that immigrant women were being subjected to forced hysterectomy procedures, and validates some of the concerns whistleblowers had about the detention center.
Advocacy groups Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and South Georgia Immigrant Support Network filed the whistleblower complaint on September 14, 2020 on behalf of immigrants detained at Irwin County Detention Center, or ICDC, “and Dawn Wooten, a nurse employed by ICDC, who is a protected whistleblower,” previous WNN reporting states. The complaint detailed numerous, extremely concerning practices that were detrimental to the health and wellbeing of detainees being held at ICDC, which is located in Ocilla, Georgia and owned by private prison company LaSalle Corrections. Among the allegations were claims that the facility failed to enforce COVID-19 safety measures and retaliated against...
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