• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

EDITORIAL: Detainees: A Federal Issue: Bradenton Doesn't Need Detention Center

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 April 2006, 09:00 CDT

By The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

Apr. 12--We'll shed few tears if the immigration detention facility in downtown Bradenton is closed by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department.

Officials with ICE (formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service) recently indicated they're considering ending their 10-year contract with the Manatee County Sheriff's Department, which has supplied detention facilities for illegal immigrants in the former county jail in the Hensley Public Safety Complex. Although ICE officials didn't say why they're thinking of moving the detainees to Miami, it has been reported that ICE plans to consolidate the detention operations scattered in 15 facilities around the country into five super facilities. Since the two sides have been operating on a 60-day cancellation agreement for the last six years, closing the detention center wouldn't be a legal problem for either side.

Housing federal immigration detainees in Manatee County wasn't meant to be a permanent arrangement. For the last 10 years, it has suited both county and federal governments to use the unneeded space in the Hensley complex as well as some surplus cells in the county stockade near Port Manatee. Manatee County picked up a little extra money for providing the service, and ICE had space to relieve crowding at its Krome Avenue Center in Miami.

But with construction now under way on a new judicial center adjacent to the Hensley complex, Manatee County will soon need the jail space for itself. Some of the cells will be converted into offices for court operations and some retained as holding cells for prisoners facing trial. And Sheriff Charlie Wells says the stockade is close to being at capacity, so "it was just a matter of time before this ended."

Indeed, Manatee County turned down a chance to work a more permanent deal with ICE just four years ago. The county commission rejected a $9.3 million deal in 2002 to provide 256 additional detention cells at the stockade. The ICE offered to pay that much to lease the cells for 20 years, then turn them over to Manatee County for free at the end of the contract. But County Administrator Ernie Padgett said at the time that it was not in the county's best interest to approve the deal. He called then-INS officials inflexible in negotiations and said a 20-year contract represented a "tremendous unknown."

Moving the detainees to Miami certainly represents a hardship to them and their family members living in southwest Florida. But that is a federal issue, not one for which local government should take responsibility.

If and when the detention facility is closed here, we'll look forward to the transformation of the ugly old jail into a handsome modern tower with glass, architectural detailing, distinctive peaked roofline and even a clock tower. That's what was promised in the decision to build the judicial center next to the jail instead of razing it.

That can't happen too soon.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Bradenton Herald (Bradenton, Fla.)

More News in this Category