AG won't probe prison death

[babylonsister]

Passing the buck?

AG won't probe prison death
Tuesday, 19 August 2008

BY VINAYA SAKSENA

CENTRAL FALLS — The death of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prisoner in the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility will not be investigated by the office of Attorney General Patrick Lynch, a Lynch spokesperson told the Times on Monday.

The news comes three days after various activist groups picketed outside the Wyatt Detention Facility on Friday, demanding a criminal investigation into the death of former Wyatt inmate Hiu Lui “Jason” Ng (pronounced “eng”), an immigrant from Hong Kong who had apparently ended up in the facility after being arrested on immigration charges in New York, allegedly on the day of his final test for a Green Card. The groups, which ranged from immigrant rights groups to the Community HIV/ AIDS Mobilization Project, were apparently hoping to prompt an investigation from Lynch and U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente. An ICE representative told the Times last week that an internal investigation was being conducted.

Lynch’s office, however, will not be conducting such an investigation. Beryl Kenyon, a spokesperson for the attorney general, said the matter should instead be investigated by a federal authority.
“Our position is that, based on the allegations, it would be a federal (matter), not a state one,” Kenyon said. “He was in the custody of ICE. And the Wyatt Detention Facility is not a state facility.”

more...

http://www.pawtuckettimes.com/content/view/43365/1/

Related thread:

How ICE killed an immigrant...by letting him die of "undiagnosed and untreated" cancer

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3787860

[MountainLaurel]

1. Will the feds investigate their own properly?

I can understand the AG's feeling that investigating ICE should be a federal matter (after all, he has no jurisdiction there). Here's hoping an independent investigation by the feds can be started.