Disability Rights Pennsylvania has filed suit against the state’s prison system, alleging that the agency provides dangerously inadequate medical care for people with Type 1 diabetes and punishes them for their disease.

“This action seeks to stop the cruel and unusual punishment of, and discrimination against, prisoners in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes,” the complaint says.

Steve and Barbara O’Connor’s daughter, Ellen, is among the approximately 190 people with Type 1 diabetes incarcerated in Pennsylvania state prisons, according to the complaint. Prior to her incarceration, her condition was well-managed, they said. But since she’s been locked up, she’s been “near comatose” multiple times with extreme blood sugar lows.

(Ellen is not her real name. At the family’s request, The Appeal is using an alias to protect her privacy.)

Disability Rights Pennsylvania (DRP) says Ellen’s experience is emblematic of a system-wide crisis. People with Type 1 diabetes are “denied basic medical care,” putting them at “immediate risks of loss of consciousness, seizures, coma, and sudden death,” according to the group’s complaint. The group alleges that, as a result of DOC’s policies and practices, life-threatening low and high blood sugars are a pervasive problem among prisoners with Type 1 diabetes.

“I want these people to get life-sustaining care,” Barbara said. “They walk in as one, and they can walk out without limbs, heart disease, blind, a multitude of life-changing illnesses due to the lack of care.”

Ellen fears she won’t survive her incarceration.

“She keeps saying she’s afraid she’s going to die in there, she’s never going to get out,” Barbara said.

Officers tased one man when he experienced an episode of hypoglycemia and was unresponsive because he did not keep his arms and hands in front while they attempted to handcuff him, according to the complaint.

Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, can cause a person to become confused and disoriented. If left untreated, it can quickly lead to loss of consciousness, seizures, or death.

This same man was also hospitalized twice for diabetic ketoacidosis, which is caused by high blood sugar levels, over the course of one week.

Read more at The Appeal.

A federal lawsuit filed by West Virginia prisoners alleges that Aramark Corporation serves inedible, low-quality food in its prison cafeterias to drive customers to its food-for-purchase programs.

Last year, people incarcerated at West Virginia’s Mt. Olive Correctional Complex, along with loved ones of Mt. Olive prisoners, filed a class action lawsuit against Aramark and its subsidiaries, including the prison commissary company, Union Supply Group. Earlier this month, West Virginia prisoners asked the court to reject Aramark Corporation’s request to dismiss their lawsuit.

Aramark is the largest food provider in the United States to prisons and jails. Aramark also has contracts with a number of other institutions, such as schools, hospitals, and stadiums. In fiscal year 2025, the Fortune 500 company brought in $18.5 billion dollars in revenue.

“Aramark extracts a profit on both ends; it saves costs on its daily meals services business by providing less, reused, and poor-quality food, while earning more money from incarcerated consumers’ purchases from its food-for-purchase programs,” the complaint says.

Read more at The Appeal.

In December 2023, Willie Cunningham began to experience excruciating abdominal pain. Detained at Pennsylvania’s York County Prison after he was unable to pay bail, Cunningham went to the jail’s medical staff for assistance.

One nurse told Cunningham he had heartburn. Another said he had a stomach virus. Neither examined him, according to a lawsuit filed last year by the nonprofit legal clinic, Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, against York County, PrimeCare Medical, the jail’s for-profit healthcare provider at the time, and others.

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But Cunningham didn’t have heartburn or a stomach virus. He had appendicitis. By the time he was finally taken to the hospital, his appendix had burst, and he had developed sepsis.

PrimeCare did not respond to emails seeking comment. The York County Solicitor told The Appeal in an email that “neither the Commissioners nor anyone else from York County will comment on pending litigation.” York County and PrimeCare have denied all wrongdoing in their legal filings.

“I was just hurting so bad and I wanted help,” Cunningham told The Appeal. “Why are these people in positions to take care of us and they don’t care? You get paid to do a job, you incarcerate us, and then you just say, ‘Okay, he’s a criminal, he doesn’t matter, he can die.’”

Read more at The Appeal.

My colleague, Ethan Corey, and I compiled information on every sitting member of Congress who has received donations from two of the largest private prison companies that contract with ICE—CoreCivic and GEO Group—along with the smaller Management & Training Corporation (MTC).

We published the results of our investigation and a searchable database at In These Times and The Appeal—head over there to look up your congress members.

We’re planning to expand the database and would love to hear from you about what ICE profiteers we should include. Just reply to this email to share your thoughts!

On April 7, 2018, Everett Palmer, Jr. was picked up on an old DUI charge and booked into Pennsylvania’s York County Prison (YCP).

Over the next two days, Palmer’s mental health deteriorated, much of which was captured on surveillance video, according to a report by the York County Investigating Grand Jury. He was hallucinating and screaming. He repeatedly put his blanket in the toilet and wrapped himself in it.

In the early morning hours of April 9, Palmer began to slam his head and fists into the cell door, according to the Grand Jury’s report. A unit supervisor tased him twice and correctional officers stormed his cell. They tackled him and placed a spit hood over his head.

Five officers carried him out of the cell and strapped him into a restraint chair. He was breathing heavily and appeared to be gasping for breath, according to the report. While he was still in the restraint chair, the guards took him to the medical unit. An ambulance was called and he was declared dead at the hospital. Palmer, an Army veteran, was 41-years-old.

In the wake of his death, local and national reporters wrote about the harrowing last days of Palmer’s life. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania opened an investigation into his case, but no charges were filed by local or federal prosecutors.

In the years since his death, York County has ramped up its use of restraint chairs. In 2018, the restraint chair was used a total of 148 times. Six years later, in 2024, the restraint chair was used 191 times—an increase of almost 30 percent—even though the population of the jail was about half of what it had been in 2018, according to The Appeal’s analysis of county data from 2018 to 2024. (The data for 2025 has not yet been published.)

An analysis of county data showed:

• From 2018 through 2024, York County used restraint chairs a total of 1,295 times—more than any other county in the state.

• York County’s use of restraint chairs peaked in 2023. That year they were used 224 times, making up almost 20 percent of all uses statewide.

• In each year from 2021–2024, York County used restraint chairs more times than any other county in the state.

• For each year studied, approximately twenty jails, or about 30 percent of the state’s jails, reported zero uses of restraint chairs.

• In the last decade, at least two people died after they were placed in restraint chairs -- both were in the midst of a crisis.

  Read the full story at The Appeal.

The decision in State v. Nieves could help unravel wrongful convictions in New Jersey and throughout the country.

“By upholding the exclusion of this testimony, the Court reinforces a core principle of our justice system: criminal convictions must rest on reliable, well-supported scientific evidence,” the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, which represented Darryl Nieves, said in a statement. “The Constitution demands more than speculation dressed in scientific language.”

Read the full story at The Appeal.

The Trump administration has repeatedly used popular songs, and movie and television clips, in its propaganda videos, with impunity.

Olivia Rodrigo has been one of the few artists to speak out. After her song, “all-american bitch” was used in a video posted by the White House and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the singer posted a comment saying, “Don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda.”

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Many have called on Taylor Swift — whose music has been used by the Trump administration in multiple videos — to do the same. She hasn’t. Most recently, her song, “The Fate of Ophelia” was used in a video posted by Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection (CBP.) In August, the White House and Border Patrol posted a propaganda video using Swift’s “…Ready For It?”

“That Swift and her team haven’t issued a statement distancing her from a president mired in scandal and an administration criticised for censorship, violent immigration raids and far-right policies, is curious,” Alim Kheraj wrote for The Guardian. “Once politically shy, she appeared to fully embrace and advocate for progressive values in 2018, so much so that her decision to speak out about politics became the narrative tent pole of her documentary Miss Americana.”

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While much attention has focused on Swift, her response, or lack thereof, appears to be the norm.

Here’s just a small sample of propaganda videos posted over the last few months by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the White House, and Border Patrol:

• Border Patrol posted a video using Nirvana’s “Something In The Way.”

• Border Patrol and CBP posted a video using Billie Eilish’s “BIRDS OF A FEATHER.”

• Border Patrol posted a video using the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage.”

• DHS and Border Patrol posted a video using the Black Eyes Peas’ “Pump It.”

• DHS and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) posted a video featuring Rihanna’s “S&M,” and Get the Bag’s “K41.” Their songs are played over clips of anti-ICE protesters, and federal agents disappearing people who appear to be Latino. The victims’ hands are cuffed or ziptied behind their backs and some are not fully dressed.

  The captions says: “Dear Antifa: We’re taking our country back. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!”

• Border Patrol posted a video using The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize.”

• Border Patrol, CBP, and DHS posted a video using Dragula’s “Goodnight Irene.”

• Border Patrol posted a video using the theme music from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

• DHS, CBP, and Border Patrol posted a video using Petey Pablo’s “Raise Up.”

• CBP and DHS posted a video using Limp Bizkit’s Break Stuff.

• The White House posted an image of Spongebob Squarepants holding a scroll that says, “Give free healthcare to illegals.” The Instagram caption states: “Democrats’ to-do list this week.”

• San Diego Border Patrol posted a video featuring a doctored clip from the animated television show, “Family Guy.”

• DHS posted a video featuring the Pokémon theme song, “Gotta Catch ‘Em All,” over clips from the cartoon and videos of federal officers abducting people. “Department of Homeland Security” is written in the Pokémon font when the video opens. The video ends with mock Pokemon cards featuring the photos of those they arrested.

• The White House posted a propaganda video featuring a montage of clips from popular television shows and movies, including “The Princess Bride,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Family Guy,” “My Cousin Vinny,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Spongebob Squarepants,” and “The Office.”

The White House posted two clips from the sketch comedy show, “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.” One video spliced clips of President Trump making anti-immigrant and anti-trans statements with clips from the show, featuring Tim Robinson. The caption states: “IT’S NOT COMPLICATED. No free health care for illegal aliens. Put America First. Don’t be dumb. Fund the government. ” The second features a doctored version of the show’s parody of “The Bachelorette.” The caption says: “Democrats are only here to give free healthcare to criminal illegal aliens.”

Artists are typically much more territorial about their intellectual property, as Kheraj noted in his piece for The Guardian on Swift:

The silence is surprising from an artist known to be litigious over unsanctioned use of her music or likeness: she has previously sued a theme park for playing her music without a licence, come for Etsy sellers for using lyrics from her songs in unofficial merch, taken on YouTube creators over copyright infringement and demanded retroactive songwriting credits from newer artists (including Rodrigo).

Popular culture is essential to the Trump administration’s propaganda machine — and the artists who unintentionally power it must demand their work is not used to advance fascism. They can use their celebrity, their wealth, and copyright law to starve the administration of one of its many insidious tools.

This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

The suit was filed against York County, the facility’s then-medical provider, PrimeCare Medical, Inc., and three nurses who allegedly failed to treat Cunningham.

In October, York County ended its contract with PrimeCare and entered into a contract with MEDIKO, which hired many of PrimeCare’s employees, according to the suit. PrimeCare has been sued numerous times for allegedly providing dangerously inadequate medical care to incarcerated patients.

The complaint alleges that over the course of six days in December of 2023, Willie Cunningham’s health rapidly deteriorated, but medical staff dismissed his symptoms, failed to examine him, and falsified his medical records. When he was finally taken to the hospital, almost a week after his symptoms first appeared, his appendix had burst and he had gone into sepsis.

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“I almost died,” Cunningham said in a statement. “I felt like the medical staff at York County Prison didn’t care whether I died or not. I filed this lawsuit because I want to try to get better medical care for people in jail. Nobody should have to fear dying in jail for a treatable medical problem.”

On December 16, 2023 Cunningham began feeling ill. Over the next two days his symptoms, including abdominal pain, worsened. On the morning of December 18, Cunningham was working at his assigned job when an officer told him he “looked awful” and directed him to take the day off.

That evening, he vomited three times. At about 11 p.m. an officer took Cunningham to the medical department. His abdominal pain was so severe that he could not stand up straight when he walked.

When they arrived at the infirmary, the assistant director of nursing told Cunningham he had heartburn and gave him Pepto-Bismol and antacid tablets.

The suit says she falsely recorded in his medical record that he had eaten dinner. She also recorded that she had palpated his abdomen and taken Cunningham’s temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and respirations — none of which she did.

That night, his condition worsened, according to the complaint. He was so desperate to relieve the abdominal pain that he tried to make himself vomit.

By the morning of December 19, his sheets, shirt, and shorts were “soaked in sweat,” according to the complaint. At 6 a.m., an officer brought Cunningham back to the medical department. Once again, he could not walk upright because of the severe abdominal pain.

He saw a different nurse, but this visit was as useless as the first — she didn’t conduct a physical exam or take his vitals, although she falsely reported in his medical records that she had, according to the suit.

She allegedly told him he had a stomach virus and gave him anti-nausea medicine.

For the rest of the day, Cunningham stayed in bed. Other incarcerated people attempted to care for him. The suit says they brought him soup, fresh sheets, and encouraged him to drink water, but the excruciating pain prevented him from eating, sleeping, or drinking.

The next morning, December 20, an officer brought Cunningham back to the medical department. He saw the same nurse as the day before. She did not examine him and sent him back to his dorm.

An officer brought him back the following day. This time, Cunningham saw a different nurse, but the treatment, or lack thereof, was the same — she did not conduct an exam or take his vitals. This nurse didn’t even bother to record the visit in Cunningham’s medical record, according to the suit.

On December 22, an officer brought him back to the medical department. Finally, the two nurses on duty — who he had not seen during his prior visits — sent him to the hospital. The suit alleges that those nurses falsely recorded in his medical records that they had taken his vitals, and one of them falsely recorded that she had conducted a physical exam.

At the hospital, he was diagnosed with a ruptured appendix with abscesses, gangrene, peritonitis — a potentially deadly type of infection if left untreated — and sepsis with acute kidney failure. He was hospitalized for a month and then faced a long recovery at home, according to the complaint.

On January 21, 2024, he was discharged and went home to his mother’s house, as he had been granted bail in the interim. Unable to afford the visiting nurse service his medical team had recommended, his elderly mother had to care for him.

“This case is about more than just the errors of three nurses,” said Evangeline Wright, Staff Attorney with the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, in a statement. “It exposes a systemic failure by York County and PrimeCare to provide adequate, humane medical care, prioritizing cost and convenience over the lives of the people in their custody.”

This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

Photo by Tim Hüfner on Unsplash.

More than twenty years ago, Roberson was sentenced to death for the murder of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki. If he is executed he will be the first person in the history of the United States to be put to death based on the dubious shaken baby syndrome (SBS) hypothesis, which one judge likened to “junk science.”

As the case against Roberson has unraveled, he’s gained legions of supporters. The most surprising, however, may be Brian Wharton, the lead detective on Roberson’s case.

“Now when I sit down with him, I hear him, I can see him,” Wharton told me. “He was a suspect. That’s the way I saw him, that’s the way I understood him, and that’s the way I listened to him.”

Read the full story at The Nation.

Photo credit: Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Innocence Project.

.The complaint says people at the California City Detention Facility are also subjected to solitary confinement and brutal attacks by staff.

“No human being, immigrant or not, should be subjected to these horrendous conditions,” Gustavo Guevara, one of seven named plaintiffs in the suit, said in a statement. “It’s not right that because we’re immigrants they feel they can treat us this way.”

Earlier this year, CoreCivic entered into a contract with ICE to reopen the jail, which had previously operated as a prison and closed in 2023. Currently there are more than 800 people held at the jail, although that number is expected to significantly grow.

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With the capacity to hold up to 2,560 people, the lock-up is the largest immigration jail in California. CoreCivic predicts the jail will bring in approximately $130 million annually once “the activation is complete.”

The Trump administration has been a financial boon to the private prison industry. In advance of CoreCivic’s third quarter earnings call, which was held on November 6, the company announced its total revenue for the quarter was $580.4 million, an increase of 18.1 percent from the prior year’s quarter.

“Ongoing demand for the solutions we provide, particularly from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), contributed to a solid third quarter,” Damon T. Hininger, CoreCivic’s Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement.

“We expect detainee populations to continue to grow as ICE implements its interior enforcement plan, contributing to a strong 2025,” he continued.

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Their fortune is built on — and only possible because of — mass suffering.

The complaint says:

Sewage bubbles up from the shower drains, and insects crawl up and down the walls of the cells. People are locked in concrete cells the size of a parking space for hours on end, and officers threaten them with violence and solitary confinement. Food is paltry and people go hungry. Temperatures are frigid; those who cannot afford to buy sweatshirts from the exorbitantly priced commissary suffer in the cold, some wearing socks on their arms as makeshift sleeves.

“Some of the people I’m detained with don’t even have soap — they take showers without soap — and they’re losing weight because they don’t have enough to eat,” plaintiff Sokhean Keo said in a statement.

Medical care at the jail is atrocious, according to the complaint. Yuri Alexander Roque Campos, one of the plaintiffs, has been denied his heart medications for days at a time, which has resulted in two hospitalizations. During the last hospitalization, a doctor said he could die if this were to happen again. Yet, he has not seen a cardiologist and still does not consistently receive his medication, the suit says.

Another named plaintiff, Fernando Viera Reyes, has been waiting for months for a biopsy so he can receive a formal diagnosis of prostate cancer and begin treatment, according to the complaint.

“Mr. Viera Reyes is experiencing increasingly abnormal bloodwork results and bleeding with urination,” the suit says. “Although he still has not seen a specialist, these results indicate that his cancer may have metastasized while he has been waiting for an appointment.”

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Plaintiff Fernando Gomez Ruiz, who has lived in California for more than twenty years, was abducted by ICE while he was eating at a food truck outside a Home Depot.

An insulin-dependent diabetic, he’s been denied regular doses of insulin while detained at the jail. He has a large ulcer on the bottom of his foot “which he is forced to cover with soiled bandages and bloody shoes.”

The suit says that Gomez Ruiz fears that without proper medical care, his foot will have to be amputated.

The plaintiffs allege that people with disabilities are denied necessary accommodations, including wheelchairs, sign language interpreters, . When plaintiff Jose Ruiz Canizales, who is deaf, tries to speak with staff “they often shrug their shoulders, walk away, or laugh at him,” according to the complaint. Since he arrived at the jail in August, he has only interacted with a sign language interpreter once, and that was through a video call.

Earlier this month, California City staff confiscated custom orthopedic shoes and insoles from a man who has amputated toes, “which cause an imbalance when he walks,” according to the complaint.

“He previously fractured his remaining toes from walking with that imbalance, leading his podiatrist in the community to order these accommodations for him,” the suit says. “He spoke to both an officer and a nurse at California City to request the custom shoes and insoles as a disability accommodation, but neither provided them.”

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Staff routinely brutalize detainees. In one incident, officers entered the cell of a man in solitary confinement, who was handcuffed. The suit says they hit him with riot shields, threw him to the ground, and held him down with their knees on his back.

In another incident, an officer was speaking to a person who did not speak English and did not understand the officer. When the man turned to walk away, the officer pepper sprayed him, according to the suit.

In September, detainees organized a hunger strike and sit-ins to protest their conditions, and sent the warden a list of demands:

Medical. We have medical needs and records that prove it. Give us medical care.

Cease oppressive behavior. Stop threatening us with solitary confinement for requesting these basic necessities. Stop threatening us with retaliatory transfers for asserting our rights. Stop keeping us locked in our cells for the majority of the day. Let us have contact visits with our family.

Legal resources and access. Let us access a law library. Let us make copies of documents for our cases free of charge. Give us pens. Allow us access to our mail and phone calls.

Hygiene and Health. Unclog our toilets. Give us drinkable water. Clean the prison or at least give us the proper supplies to do so. Properly handle our food, and give us nutritious food.

Property. Give us back our property, including our books and religious items that were confiscated.

Staff placed many protesters in solitary confinement, and medical staff threatened to withhold medication from hunger strikers unless they ceased their protest.

“Conditions remained bleak for people civilly detained at California City, resulting in a widespread sense of hopelessness, desperation and, in some cases, self-harm and suicidal ideation,” the suit says.

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At least three people at the jail have attempted suicide, according to the complaint.

On October 9, a man hung himself in his cell. Detainees screamed for help. It allegedly took staff about ten minutes to cut him down. Those who did not immediately return to their cells after the incident were given disciplinary tickets, according to the complaint.

Keo, one of the plaintiffs, was friends with the man and saw him hanging in his cell. The suit says he remains haunted by flashbacks.

“ICE is playing with people’s lives, and they treat people like they’re trash, like they’re nothing,” he said in a statement. “This is bigger than me, but filing this lawsuit feels like something I can do to call for help for myself and everyone else here.”

This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

Photo by Tim Hüfner on Unsplash.

Israel is engaging in “an organized and systematic practice of sexual torture, including rape, forced stripping, forced filming, sexual assault using objects and dogs,” the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) said in a report released yesterday, November 10.

PCHR’s findings are based on testimonies from Palestinian hostages who were abducted from the Gaza Strip and recently released from Israel’s prisons and detention camps, referred to throughout the rest of the piece as torture camps.

“[T]he testimonies do not reflect isolated incidents but constitute a systematic policy practiced in the context of the ongoing crime of genocide against more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” the group writes.

PCHR is calling for the international community, the Palestinian Authority, and authorities in the Gaza Strip to provide the victims with protection, and psychological and medical care.

PCHR shares the harrowing testimony of one woman, identified as N.A. in the report, who was abducted at an Israeli checkpoint in Gaza in 2024. She told the group that she was raped by Israeli soldiers, stripped and filmed naked, electrocuted, and beaten:

The soldiers moved me to a place I didn’t know because my eyes were blindfolded, and they ordered me to take off my clothes. I did so. They put me on a metal table, pressed my chest and head against it, cuffed my hands to the end of the bed, and pulled my legs apart forcefully. I felt a penis penetrating my anus and a man raping me. I started screaming, and they beat me on my back and head while I was blindfolded. I felt the man who was raping me ejaculate inside my anus. I kept screaming and being beaten, and I could hear a camera — so I believe they were filming me. The rape lasted about 10 minutes. After that, they left me for an hour in the same position, with my hands cuffed to the bed with metal handcuffs.

An hour later, she was raped and beaten again. She said she could hear several soldiers laughing and the click of a camera.

“On the first day I was raped twice; on the second day I was raped twice; on the third day I remained without clothes while they looked at me through the door slit and filmed me,” she said. “One soldier said they would post my photos on social media. While I was in the room, my period started; then they told me to put on clothes and transferred me to another room.”

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A.A., a 35-year-old Palestinian man, was abducted from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in March 2024, and held hostage for 19 months. The victim told PCHR that he was anally raped by a dog while soldiers beat and pepper sprayed him.

“I suffered a severe psychological breakdown and deep humiliation; I lost control because I could never have imagined experiencing such a thing,” he said. “Afterward, a doctor stitched a wound in my head caused by the torture—seven stitches without anesthesia. I also suffered bruises, fractures in my limbs, and a rib fracture.”

Another man, T.Q., was abducted while displaced at Kamal Adwan Hospital in December 2023. During his 22 months in captivity, soldiers raped him and threatened to rape his wife. He told PCHR staff:

One of the soldiers raped me by violently inserting a wooden stick into my anus. After about a minute he removed it and then inserted it again more forcefully while I screamed loudly. After another minute he removed it and forced me to open my mouth and put the stick in my mouth to lick it. From sheer anguish I lost consciousness for minutes, until a female officer came and forced them to stop beating me. She untied my hands, gave me a white overall to wear, and brought me a cup of water which I drank.

He was moved to another room with several other hostages about about hours, “during which soldiers periodically returned to beat and insult us brutally.”

An 18-year-old hostage who was abducted near a humanitarian aid distribution point run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the Gaza Strip, said soldiers repeatedly raped by inserting a bottle into his anus. During one incident, he said:

The soldiers ordered me and six other detainees to kneel, and they raped us by inserting a bottle into the anus, pushing it in and pulling it out. It happened to me four times, with about ten in-and-out motions each time. I screamed, and so did the others with me. Of the four times, twice it was just me, and twice it was with others—once with six people and once with twelve people.

He continued: “They violated our dignity and destroyed our spirits and our hope for life. I had wanted to continue my education; now I am lost after what happened to me.”

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Israel’s well-documented use of sexual torture against Palestinians has not garnered the same attention or outrage as the false claims that Hamas soldiers mass raped Israeli women during the October 7, 2023 attack. In fact, within Israel there is more outrage that soldiers’ crimes against Palestinians are exposed than the crimes themselves.

Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi is facing charges of “breach of loyalty,” “breach of trust,” “dereliction of duty,” and “disrupting investigative operations,” for leaking a video last year that allegedly shows Israeli soldiers gang raping a Palestinian hostage at Sde Teiman torture camp.

“Anyone who falsely spreads blood libels against IDF soldiers and prefers the welfare of the Nukhba terrorists over theirs is not worthy of wearing the IDF uniform and belongs in prison,” the Israeli Defense Minister said of Tomer-Yerushalmi.

This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

“USCIS is cutting bureaucratic red tape to hire fiercely dedicated, America-first patriots to serve on the front lines and hold the line against terrorists, criminal aliens, and bad actors intent on infiltrating our nation,” a USCIS press release sent out on Thursday, November 6, says. “This includes interviewing aliens, reviewing applications, and identifying criminal or ineligible aliens.”

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USCIS, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), screens and processes green card, asylum, and citizenship applications, and administers humanitarian programs for “individuals unable to reside in their home countries; to individuals who must enter the U.S. under urgent circumstances; and to victims of certain crimes, including but not limited to human trafficking, domestic violence, abandonment, neglect, or abuse,” according to the USCIS website.

The agency is enticing applicants with the possibility of signing bonuses up to $50,000, student loan repayment, “flexible duty locations,” remote work options, and expedited hiring for entry-level positions that do not require a college degree, according to the press release.

“This entry-level role requires no college degree and offers up to $50,000 in signing and retention bonuses,” the job posting says. “If you’re driven and ready to serve with pride, join USCIS and become a vital part of homeland security!”

USCIS’s hiring campaign and job application appear designed to attract people with little (if any) relevant experience who support the Trump administration’s white supremacist, mass deportation agenda.

Applicants are asked, “How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”

In October, DHS posted an appeal for applicants clearly targeted to President Trump’s base:

STAND FOR LIBERTY.

Become a Homeland Defender and decide who will enter our country.

USCIS.GOV/JOIN

USCIS says it has made “hundreds of job offers,” including to “former law enforcement personnel and veterans who have experience serving and protecting their communities and our homeland.”

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It’s unlikely that a cop or veteran would have experience relevant to the duties of a Homeland Defender — if the purpose of the position was to evaluate applications fairly.

In fact, the requirements for applicants (or lack thereof) are incongruous with the job’s responsibilities, which include:

• Conducting thorough and meticulous reviews of applications for immigration benefits to ensure compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and policies. [The USCIS defines benefits as those seeking immigrant status, non-immigrant status, refugee status, temporary protected status, employment authorization, and citizenship.]

• Conducting in-person interviews to elicit information or statements to assess credibility and identify inconsistencies. Prioritize national security, public safety, and the integrity of the immigration system by adhering to rigorous vetting standards.

• Exercising judgment and discretion in evaluating eligibility criteria, verifying documentation, and identifying potential fraud or misuse of immigration programs.

• Upholding the administration’s commitment to enforcing immigration laws, promoting lawful pathways, and ensuring that benefits are granted only to individuals who meet the established requirements and contribute to the nation’s security and prosperity.

• Writing well-organized, logical, often complex legal decisions and opinions that are clear, consistent with adjudicative standards and legislation, and are applicable to the facts of the case or which communicate USCIS policies and procedures.

• Completing and updating administrative reports, systems, and security reporting requirements in accordance with applicable regulations and procedures.

• Researching and interpreting sources including immigration laws and regulations, operating instructions, legislative history, precedent decisions, state and local laws, and international treaties to determine adjudicative decision.

• Planning and conducting independent research concerning the eligibility and entitlement of persons seeking benefits, employment, and/or legal status under the Immigration and Nationality Act as amended.

• Providing direct support and assistance to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel and officials of other federal agencies.

The posting states that the “responsibilities described are for the full performance level,” and those at “developmental grade levels” will have assignments “of more limited scope performed with less independence, and limited complexity.” For those at the GS [General Schedule pay scale]-07 level, a bachelor’s degree is required, for the GS-05 level it is not.

“USCIS is not wasting time; we are committed to implementing President Trump’s priorities,” said Director and former Heritage Foundation visiting fellow Joseph Edlow in a statement. “These candidates are not just applying for a job — they are applying to guard our values and defend our homeland.”

During his Senate confirmation hearing, Edlow said, “USCIS must be an immigration enforcement agency.”

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ICE posted on Instagram:

The caption reads: “NYPD OFFICERS: Join an agency that respects you, your family, and your commitment to serving in law enforcement.

JOIN.ICE.GOV”

On Tuesday night, Mamdani secured an unprecedented victory in New York City’s mayoral race. A proud socialist, he ran on a platform focused on making the city a place where people can live, not just survive. He defeated primary loser and disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran a racist, anti-Muslim campaign, backed by billionaires.

“Ongoing demand for the solutions we provide, particularly from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), contributed to a solid third quarter,” Damon T. Hininger, CoreCivic’s Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement.

“We expect detainee populations to continue to grow as ICE implements its interior enforcement plan, contributing to a strong 2025.”

CoreCivic’s third quarter earnings call is scheduled for Thursday, November 6 at 2:30 pm eastern time. To join the call live, people can register in advance here.

According to CoreCivic, the company has been awarded contracts at four idle “facilities” during the third quarter alone, which are expected to generate approximately $320 million of annual revenue once they’re fully operational.

The company’s total revenue for the third quarter was $580.4 million and net income was $26.3 million, an increase of 18.1 percent and almost 25 percent, respectively, from the prior year quarter, according to CoreCivic’s press release.

Hininger said that the government shutdown had not impacted the company’s revenues or “detention populations.”

With multi-million dollar contracts pouring in, the Trump presidency has given CoreCivic and GEO Group, which is also holding its third quarter call today, much to celebrate.

The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, which President Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025, provides ICE with $45 billion for building new immigration jails, including lock-ups to detain families. As I previously reported for Truthout:

Many human rights advocates have warned that the legislation would be a financial boon to the private prison industry, which, as the Brennan Center for Justice pointed out, includes “significant financial supporters of GOP candidates for Congress as well as the president’s election campaign.”

In 2024, Hininger donated more than $300,000 to Trump and the Republican National Committee, according to Truthout’s analysis of Open Secrets’ data.

CoreCivic has been repeatedly accused of operating inhumane and dangerous lock-ups. A bombshell investigation by The Guardian revealed that the FBI is investigating an alleged drug smuggling ring at CoreCivic’s Cibola County Correctional Center (CCCC) in New Mexico. People in ICE custody make up about 30 percent of the lock-up’s population. An investigation by The Guardian also revealed that at least 15 people detained at the facility died “prematurely.”

On CoreCivic’s second quarter earnings call, held in August, Hininger told participants that the One Big Beautiful Bill had “changed dramatically the activity of ICE and securing bed capacity,” and that the legislation is “a pivotal moment for funding related to our industry.”

ICE’s plan to hire 10,000 employees, he explained, is “very important” as “this increase in law enforcement personnel will obviously raise the level of individuals arrested and the requirement for detention capacity.”

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A video of the abduction posted by WGN News shows two agents violently taking a woman out of the daycare, and then putting her against a car. One of the agents, who is masked, then goes back inside the daycare while the second agent, who is not masked, stays outside, holding onto the woman’s arm. The first agent then exits the daycare.

Alderman Matt Martin stood outside the daycare and described what had occurred:

I’ve seen video, both video that was taken by parents who are waiting in line to drop their kids off, as well as video footage from inside of the building. … We have an educator who is coming here to do some of the most important work that’s happening day in and day out in our community, which is taking care of our children ... She was followed inside by ICE — they were not invited inside — and violently taken away. We have agents with guns who are walking around the facility with teachers inside, with children inside. We are, of course, demanding that she be released.

Local leaders held a press conference to condemn the teacher’s abduction.

“It is absolutely horrifying and shameful that we’ve gotten to this level of escalation from the federal government,” Alderperson Andre Vasquez said. “We need to remind each other, it’s the federal government doing it. One might call it domestic terrorism, and it would be correct.”

Vasquez continued, “I don’t believe it to be an anomaly. I do believe it’s an escalation, and I’m concerned we’re going to see more of it.”

“To target and terrify children and care providers is unconscionable,” said Greg Kelley, the president of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, Indiana, Missouri & Kansas.

“What happened this morning is a serious escalation that endangers all of our children and all of our families,” he continued. “No parent should be afraid to send their child to daycare, and no childcare worker should live in fear that they could be next just for doing their job.”

“Today I can speak for our members of SEIU, childcare workers, home care workers, nursing home workers, hospital workers, and say that we are with you,” he said. “We stand with you.”

In a statement to The Carceral Report, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin claimed, without providing evidence, that “officers attempted to conduct a targeted traffic stop of this female illegal alien from Colombia.” The male driver allegedly refused to pull over, the statement says.

“Law enforcement pursued the vehicle before the assailant sped into a shopping plaza where he and the female passenger fled the vehicle,” she continued. “They ran into a daycare and attempted to barricade themselves inside the daycare — recklessly endangering the children inside.”

The Carceral Report has requested that DHS provide bodycam and dashcam footage, and asked what was the basis of the traffic stop. We have not received a response.

Trump administration officials have repeatedly lied about the circumstances of abductions, and people’s status, often falsely claiming a person does not have authorization to be in the country when they do.

At the press conference, local leaders were asked about DHS’s claims. Their response was swift and succinct: They’re lying.

“They’re not telling us the truth,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Chicago) at the press conference. “The person they targeted had legal documentation.”

“We’re talking about a raid at a daycare,” he continued.

On X, Habba wrote, “On the eve of election night, here’s a friendly reminder from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey.”

In the video, she says:

The U.S. Attorney’s Office will coordinate with our partners at the FBI to respond to complaints related to the upcoming general election. This office will investigate and prosecute any criminal activity related to the election process, including intimidating or bribing voters, buying and selling voters, impersonating voters, altering voting ballots and tallies, stuffing ballot boxes and marking ballots for voters against their wishes or without their input, and it will do so regardless of who commits those crimes and regardless of party or affiliation.

Habba previously served as President Donald Trump’s attorney. In 2023, a Florida judge fined her and Trump close to $1 million for filing a frivolous lawsuit against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who Trump defeated in the 2016 presidential election.

A New Jersey appeals court is currently considering if Habba was legitimately appointed to her role as Acting U.S. Attorney.

Last month, on October 24, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it will “monitor polling sites” in Passaic County, New Jersey, and five California counties — Kern, Riverside, Fresno, Orange, and Los Angeles.

According to DOJ’s press release, “this effort will be overseen by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division under the leadership of Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon. The Division will deploy Civil Rights personnel who will coordinate with U.S. Attorney’s Offices.”

Dhillon is a former legal advisor to Trump who has called doctors who provide gender-affirming care “butchers.”

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Like her record on civil rights, her record on voting rights is abhorrent.

HuffPost reported:

During his 2020 campaign, she perpetuated his lie that the election was stolen from him and spread false claims about persistent voter fraud in Pennsylvania, a state that Trump legitimately lost to Joe Biden.

Her law firm, Dhillon Law Group, has filed more than a dozen lawsuits across eight states aimed at challenging voting rights, election processes or the ability of Trump to appear on 2024 ballots in states that disqualified him because of his role in inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Earlier this year, 75 organizations signed onto a letter opposing her confirmation as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, writing that Dhillon “has relentlessly tried to limit access to the ballot box.”

In response to DOJ’s announcement, last month New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin said in a statement to The Carceral Report that:

The Trump Department of Justice’s announcement that it is sending federal “election monitors” to Passaic County is highly inappropriate, and DOJ has not even attempted to identify a legitimate basis for its actions. The Constitution gives states, not the federal government, the primary responsibility for running elections, and our state’s hardworking elections officials have been preparing for months to run a safe and secure election.

On October 28, I emailed DOJ and asked, in part:

1. What will “monitor polling sites” entail? What will it look like on the ground at polling sites?

2. Is DOJ dispatching staff to be at polling sites at the six identified counties on Election Day? If so, will they be inside the polling sites and/or outside? What will their duties be?

3. Has DOJ been in contact with the elected officials and county board of elections in each of the identified counties to discuss the plan to monitor polling sites?

The spokesperson replied:

“No comment beyond the press release.”

The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, which became law on July 4, 2025, instituted a new fee system for people in the immigration system, including asylum seekers. The legislation requires that they pay a $100 filing fee and an Annual Asylum Fee (AAF) of $100 for each year their application is pending. The new law bars asylum seekers from obtaining fee waivers.

This is the first time in the history of the United States that asylum seekers have had to pay fees related to their applications. The U.S. is now one of the only countries in the world to impose fees on asylum seekers.

“The annual asylum fee imposes economic hardship on asylum seekers, many of whom have limited means,” ASAP’s complaint says. “That problem is magnified by USCIS’s [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] and EOIR’s [Executive Office for Immigration Review] retroactive application of the statute, which purports to require asylum seekers to come up with the funds on short (or no) notice.”

“The stakes for asylum seekers with pending applications could not be higher,” the complaint continues.

Failure to pay “will result in the denial or dismissal of their applications,” which can lead to loss of employment authorization and the ability to seek asylum, as well as “the obvious and severe risk of deportation to the countries from which applicants sought asylum in the first place, where they could face persecution, torture, or worse.”

ASAP welcomed the judge’s stay pausing implementation of the annual fee requirement.

“I have been so worried and confused about how or when to pay the annual asylum fee,” said Alba, an ASAP member and asylum seeker from Honduras, in a statement. “My family and I have been so anxious and unsure what to do next. With yesterday’s decision, I can breathe a little easier. This decision gives us a moment of peace while we keep fighting for fairness.”

The judge wrote that she will consider lifting the stay once “the agencies have enacted uniform policies providing asylum applicants with fair notice of the applicable fee deadline, the mechanism for payment, and the adverse consequences that might result from nonpayment.”

In addition to new fees for asylum seekers, the One Big Beautiful Bill also instituted or raised fees for other groups, including children who apply for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. They must pay a $250 application fee, although they can apply for fee waivers. The program allows abused, neglected, or abandoned children to legally stay in the United States and apply for lawful permanent residency and a work permit.

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While immigrants are now required to pay a host of new or higher fees, the USCIS has also made it harder for people to make payments. Last month, the agency announced that it is only accepting electronic payments for paper-filed forms, although in “limited instances, benefit requestors and third-party payors may be exempt from submitting electronic payments.”

“Modernizing financial transactions to and from the federal government is a priority for the Trump administration,” said USCIS Spokesman Matthew Tragesser. “Over 90% of our payments come from checks and money orders, causing processing delays and increasing the risk of fraud and lost payments. This is a no-brainer move.”

The Trump administration often uses baseless accusations of fraud and inefficiency to undermine and block people’s access to government services.

This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash.

In this week’s newsletter, we have our song of the week, an Action Alert, and a round-up of our stories.

Thanks for reading!

Elizabeth

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Our song of the week is — what else? — “THE NAME IS MAMDANI, M-A-M-D-A-N-I.” You can listen to it here or here.

Sadly, I’m sharing the same Action Alert as last week. A Palestinian-American child from Florida, Mohammed Ibrahim, is still being held hostage in Israel’s torture camps. In the early morning hours on February 16, 25-30 Israeli soldiers abducted him from his family’s home in the West Bank. They took him from his bed, and handcuffed and blindfolded him. Mohammed’s family has not seen him since.

Please take action and demand the Trump administration secure his immediate release.

And finally, here’s what we covered this week:

DHS Told Me Fed Agents Wear Masks to Protect Themselves from “Tren de Aragua and MS-13, criminal rings, murderers, and rapists”

Fascists’ Mixtape: Trump Administration Uses Lana Del Rey song in its Halloween Themed Propaganda Video

Popular culture is essential to the Trump administration’s propaganda machine — and the artists who unintentionally power it must demand their work is not used to advance fascism.

ACLU of Georgia Demands Sheriff Address Human Rights Abuses at Clayton County Jail

Conditions are as atrocious today as they were when I first began reporting on the jail in 2023. Just this week, a person detained at the jail wrote to me: “Nothing has changed here. The conditions are still deplorable, no hot water, no lights in the rooms, still having bug problems among all the other issues we spoke about.”

Congressional Candidate Kat Abughazaleh Charged By Feds for Protesting, Says “I’m Not Backing Down”

The Trump administration has repeatedly attempted to intimidate anyone who opposes its fascist agenda. Huge thanks to Truthout for republishing this piece.

DHS Posts Propaganda Video Honoring Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino

The Department of Homeland Security posted the video on the same day a federal judge ordered Bovino to come to court every weekday to report on the day’s activities. Update: WTTW reported yesterday that the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the judge’s order requiring daily check-ins.

White House Posts Propaganda Video Featuring Clips from The Princess Bride, My Cousin Vinny, Parks and Rec

Actors featured in the clips include Amy Poehler, Wallace Shawn, Steve Carrell, Marisa Tomei, and Meryl Streep.

Calls for GameStop Boycott After it Posts AI-Slop Featuring Trump Shaking Hand of Halo Protagonist

Thank you for reading!

Elizabeth

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a Halloween themed propaganda video vilifying protesters, set to Lana Del Rey’s “Season of the Witch.”

The caption says, “There will be no sanctuary for creatures & criminals of the night.”

The administration has used her music before, along with many others, including the Black Eyed Peas, the Beastie Boys, and Taylor Swift.

Earlier this month, DHS and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) posted a video featuring Rihanna’s “S&M,” and Get the Bag’s “K41.” Their songs are played over clips of anti-ICE protesters, and federal agents disappearing people who appear to be Latino. The victims’ hands are cuffed or ziptied behind their backs and some are not fully dressed.

The captions says: “Dear Antifa: We’re taking our country back. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!”

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Clips from television shows and movies also frequently appear in the administration’s propaganda videos:

• The White House posted an image of Spongebob Squarepants holding a scroll that says, “Give free healthcare to illegals.” The Instagram caption states: “Democrats’ to-do list this week.”

• San Diego Border Patrol also posted a video featuring a doctored clip from the animated television show, “Family Guy.”

• DHS posted a video featuring the Pokémon theme song, “Gotta Catch ‘Em All,” over clips from the cartoon and videos of federal officers abducting people. “Department of Homeland Security” is written in the Pokémon font when the video opens. The video ends with mock Pokemon cards featuring the photos of those they arrested.

• The White House posted two clips from the sketch comedy show, “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.” One video spliced clips of President Trump making anti-immigrant and anti-trans statements with clips from the show, featuring Tim Robinson. The caption states: “IT’S NOT COMPLICATED. No free health care for illegal aliens. Put America First. Don’t be dumb. Fund the government. 😌” The second features a doctored version of the show’s parody of “The Bachelorette.” The caption says: “Democrats are only here to give free healthcare to criminal illegal aliens.”

• The White House posted a propaganda video featuring a montage of clips from popular television shows and movies, including “The Princess Bride,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Family Guy,” “My Cousin Vinny,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Spongebob Squarepants,” and “The Office.” Actors featured in the clips include:

  Amy Poehler (“Parks and Rec”)

  Wallace Shawn (“The Princess Bride”)

  Steve Carrell (“The Office”)

  Marisa Tomei (“My Cousin Vinny”)

  Meryl Streep (“The Devil Wears Prada”)

Popular culture is essential to the Trump administration’s propaganda machine — and the artists who unintentionally power it must demand their work is not used to advance fascism. They can use their celebrity, their wealth, and copyright law to starve the administration of one of its many insidious tools.

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