The Los Angeles City Council has unanimously passed a temporary measure blocking new private detention facilities within the city, CBS Los Angeles reports. It’s a victory for residents, who had protested a possible children’s detention facility opening in Arleta. Educator Nancy Burawski told NBC Los Angeles at a demonstration earlier this month that the site would be “especially offensive because it’s in an immigrant community. There’s going to be immigrant kids walking to school and passing this building. I mean, it's just horrible.”
The ordinance, offered by City Council President Nury Martinez in response to the possible VisionQuest facility, will be in effect for a minimum of 45 days as officials work on drafting a permanent ban. Martinez had condemned the for-profit’s “controversial background,” telling the Los Angeles Times, “I will not stand idly by and allow for-profit companies to get rich off of the anguish and suffering of immigrant children in Arleta, or anywhere else in Los Angeles.”
Last year, the Reveal platform of the Center for Investigative Reporting exposed abuses at a facility run by the private firm VisionQuest in Philadelphia, reporting that staffers slapped and choked children under their care. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2018 that state documents revealed that “[t]wo staffers repeatedly cursed at the children, telling them, ‘You're nothing,’ and promising to ‘make life a living hell,’ inspectors wrote.”
The proposed Arleta site has also been criticized by U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas, who said in a letter to Trump administration officials, “At this moment little to no information has been provided to the community” on the facility. “I oppose having any detention center in my district,” he continued. “We have seen the harmful and traumatizing effects caused by the cruel and unsafe conditions at detention facilities, and I will continue fighting against the Trump administration’s inhumane immigration policies.”
VisionQuest officials have attempted to deflect criticism of their practices by claiming the site wouldn’t be a “detention center,” the Los Angeles Times reported, with a spokesperson telling the paper, “While we are seeking permanency for these youth, our job is to keep them safe, comfortable, well fed, properly clothed, educated, recreated and medically cared for, both physically and mentally.” But the for-profit company’s Philadelphia site has shown that it is not doing its job.