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Mass. hearing spotlights ICE detention conditions, attorney access and Plymouth contract
Summary
Testimony at a joint legislative hearing described how contact with the criminal legal system funnels people into ICE custody in Massachusetts; attorneys and advocates urged state action on oversight, budget choices and barriers such as costly remote-visit providers at Plymouth County.
State legislators heard detailed accounts on how immigrants in Massachusetts enter and experience ICE detention during a joint informational hearing at the State House.
Leah Hastings, an attorney who runs the Immigrant Detention Conditions Project at Prisoners Legal Services of Massachusetts, told the committee that "the primary way people end up in ICE detention in Massachusetts is through contact with the criminal legal system" — including traffic stops, arrests, court processing and incarceration. Hastings described persistent problems at local lockups contracted to ICE, naming medical-care gaps, use of solitary confinement for people with mental‑health and substance‑use needs, and transfers that limit access to counsel and treatment.
Hastings…
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