Highway to Detention Zone

Day five of our road trip to the conventions. We�ve had to cover a lot of territory to get to our points of destination, we�ve seen a lot of highway, slept limited hours in shabby motel rooms, ate at way too many chain restaurants and fast food joints�John Akin, our tech/graphics guru on the trip, will be posting a photo of what not to order at a Denny�s�and had the chance to have some great conversations in the places we have stopped.

We�re en route now to Postville, Iowa, site of the raid at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant, where the feds outdid themselves by railroading the vast majority of the 400 detained workers into pleading guilty to criminal charges for using false documents�subjecting them not only to deportation but five months in prison first. I won�t even comment on the outrageous cruelty of that.

From the plant, the workers were all taken to detention at county jails that reap a windfall renting out bedspace to the Department of Homeland Security.

Which got me to wondering how many detention facilities we�ve passed on our road trip cross-country. Take a look at the attached map, which John A. created juxtaposing our GoogleMaps route with the detention center map on the Detention Watch Network site.

I think it�s easier for us to find a detention center en route than it is to avoid a fast food meal.