In January 2018, the Dignity No Detention Act (Senate Bill 29) came into effect in California, which prevents municipalities in the Golden State from entering into contracts with private companies for the purpose of detaining immigrants or modifying existing contracts to expand the immigration detention.
This law was approved in October 2017 and entered into force on January 1, 2018, reviews the growth of private immigrant prisons, and increases transparency on the issuance of permits to corporations to operate immigrant prisons.
This law was introduced by State Senators Ricardo Lara, Nancy Skinner, and Assembly members Lorena González and Mike Gipson.
The law prohibits “a city, county, city and county, or local law enforcement agency that, as of that date (January 1, 2018), does not have a contract with the federal government or any federal agency or a private agency, corporation to detain non-citizens for the purpose of civil immigration custody so that they do not contract with those entities to house or detain non-citizens in a closed detention facility for the purpose of custody civil immigration, ”explains the summary of the legislative advisor.
“Consistent with its obligation to safeguard the humane and fair treatment of all persons located in California, it is the intent of the Legislature that this bill declares that the state does not tolerate profiting from the incarceration of Californians detained by immigration and the desire of the state to ensure fair and humane treatment of our most vulnerable populations ”, dictates Section 1 of the Law.
The intent is to ensure uniform treatment of people detained in immigration detention centers within the state of California, in a way that exceeds federal and national standards.
DETENTION WATCH NETWORK
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB29
