Free the Children of Texas' Hutto Prison

We were deleted!!!
The original profile with close to 6000 friends in it's network and over 200 archived articles in it's blog disappeared for the second time last week on November 29th.
Unlike the first time the profile was mysteriously deleted in July, this time it was not restored.
Luckily, about five days later the free_the_children URL was available again and so we are still at the same address folks have bookmarked.
It is unknown why the original profile was deleted. Myspace help has not responded to multiple emails requesting information, but with the millions and millions of accounts they take care of -- it is not hard to imagine how overwhelmed the help folk must be.
We apologize that some of the links on the left hand side of the profile are not working right now. Many were to the old blog archives. They may or may not be recoverable. Please be patient as it will take time to locate the articles on the internet and repost them.
No Matter.
What we need now is help rebuilding out friend network. There is a Vigil on 16 December at the prison and a toy drive, so the focus is on getting the word out for that and then we'll work on fixing the blog and main page.
Please Help us get our friends back by adding us and asking your friends to add us as well!!!
The Shameful Problem:
Until the ACLU fought for a settlement this past August, the children at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, 35 miles northeast of Austin, lived in cells; they wore uniforms and received inadequate medical and educational services, were often cold and hungry, and were separated from their parents as punishment, and received only one hour of schooling per day and rarely played outside. Conditions have improved due to the court order, but they still live in prison cells.
They are guilty of no crimes, and endanger no one. Their parents, who are incarcerated here because they are seeking asylum after fleeing such circumstances as war, torture, political persecution and rape, or are accused of violating civil immigration laws, have committed no crimes. Many of the children are US Citizens.
Teachers at the center are not required to be licensed in Texas, and the state’s family welfare agency exempted Hutto from child care licensing requirements. Along with one other, less prison-like facility in Pennsylvania, Hutto is operated without official regulations.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the arm of Homeland Security that runs the two centers, relies on custody rules designed for inmates
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a for profit company running the majority of privatized prisons in the US, is paid 2.8 million dollars a month (7k per child per month or 84k per child per year) to keep these children behind bars.
It would cost less to put them up at the Austin Hilton with room service.
In contrast, putting a monitoring bracelet/anklet on a parent costs $660 per month.
In past years CCA has made political contributions to key Texas politicians, 100k to Tom Delay and 100k to Governor Perry. Overall, for profit prison companies contributed roughly 519k to state level political campaigns in one year alone. Lt Governor Dewhurt's cut was 53k, while House Speaker Craddick received 34.9k.
Why free the children when keeping them locked up makes so much money?
Who We Are
Free The Children are loosely knit, but highly motivated grass roots volunteers who are working to bring attention to the incarceration of these children and ultimately close Hutto down.
How Can You Help?
Just by reading this myspace page and the blog posts, you are helping.
The more you know about this horrible situation, the better you'll be able to communicate your outrage to others.
And that is how you can truly help!
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD
Help spread the word!
Please REPOST bulletins.
Please encourage your friends to check out the blog posts , subscribe to the blog and to add Free The Children of Texas's Hutto Prison to their friends lists.The secrecy and media black out surrounding this facility help keep it open for business.
Please consider writing your elected representatives in the House and Senate . For those in Texas, that includes state officials .
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services issued Corrections Corporation of America a waiver normally given to Sunday Schools to operate here in Texas. Tell your representatives and senators to stop ICE and CCA from stealing chilldhoods to create corporate profits!