The press conference on the Georgia detention center story has started. First speaker is a staff attorney at Project South - Priyanka Bhat - does whistleblower advocacy. Whistleblower filed 9/8 regarding COVID issues at LaSalle. 1
Project South filed a larger complaint to the ICE inspector general. No testing of detainees for COVID despite symptoms and requests. 2
Dawn Wooten, a nurse at the detention center, is now up. This is the whistleblower. She has been employed for several years there. She is a sickle cell sufferer and single parent so she’s been very cautious. 3
No testing of anyone until June. No sanitizing. No PPE. She wasn’t provided a mask. She complained about no testing for symptomatic detainees. Was told that detainees would fake having COVID if that was an option. 4
She got demoted for complaining too much. Last straw was when she became symptomatic and she was written up for not coming in to work. Then she was demoted again. 5
Next - Kimberly Bollo-Aponte - Program Coordinator with Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. Over the last few years, LAHR has observed problems with for profit detention centers - lack of food, medical neglect. 6
No woman should undergo surgery without informed consent. People who complained were put in isolation and otherwise punished. 7
Reverend Leeann Culbreath is next - South Georgia Immigrant Support Network. Their volunteers support immigrants at LaSalle. Volunteers lives are also put at risk. Aware of numerous cases of COVID in the detention center. No disinfectant being used. Mold is everywhere. 8
Insects everywhere. No social distancing. Now outlining case of women being told they have an ovarian cyst. Many women given the same diagnosis. Put under anesthesia and then given hysterectomies. 9
Priyanka Bhatt - 40 cases of COVID confirmed at the facility. Also, there’s a similar whistleblower complaint at another facility. 10
Bhatt - The hysterectomy problem has been going on for several years. The complaint alleges 5 women who had the procedure over a couple of months without informed consent. 11
Reverend Culbreath - Women are shackled when they’re taken to these appointments in shackles. 12
That’s the end of the press conference, but they’re urging more whistleblowers employed at the facility to step forward. 13
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