Dominique Moore says a night in the Greene County Jail gave her a greater appreciation for the experience of ICE detainees.
Moore was one of a half-dozen protesters arrested at the jail during a sit-in in late August.
Around the time of the protest, the jail reported 413 ICE detainees in custody. The jail is supposed to have just 375 spaces set aside for inmates in Federal custody.
Moore said, "even when we knew that the numbers reflected overcrowding simply because there were more people than beds, um, Experiencing the conditions firsthand was really eye opening to see how those impacts really play out."
Moore said her and other protesters were held in a segregation watch unit and several had to sleep on mats on the floor. She said the cells were kept uncomfortably cold. she also had concerns about timely responses to medical issues.
"One of the protesters," she explained "was with us had an asthma attack and request for medical intervention on the speaker went ignored for almost an hour."
Moore said the sit-in was organized to draw attention to detainees held without charge. She said data analyzed by the organization Southwest Missouri Immigration Alliance indicates the average detainee is held in the jail for about 57 days. The jail is reimbursed by the Federal Government for guard and transportation costs and receives $100 a day for each detainee.