NC Policy Watch: “The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Permanent Investigations released an 18-month bipartisan report that found migrant women who were detained at Irwin County Detention Center, known as ICDC, in Georgia were subjected to “excessive, invasive, and often unnecessary gynecological procedures,” and many of the women did not consent or understand the procedures they underwent.
Following the release of the report, the panel held a hearing to question Assistant Director Stewart D. Smith of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Health Service Corps at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Pamela Hearn, the medical director at LaSalle Corrections, which has federal contracts to operate detention centers across the country, including one at ICDC.
The report focused on one doctor contracted to treat detainees, Dr. Mahendra Amin, who performed “high rates” of unauthorized hysterectomies on ICDC detainees.
“It’s hard for me to think of anything that is worse than the federal government subjugating incarcerated women to unnecessary gynecological surgery,” Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who chairs the panel, said.”