Rotarians learn about local detention center

Alexander Sanchez, facility administrator of the IAH Secure Adult Detention Center, and his administrative assistant, Dendra Butler, recently provided a program for the Rotary Club of Livingston. (l-r) Sanchez, Butler and Rotary President Brandon Wigent. Photo by Emily Banks Wooten

By Emily Banks Wooten
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Alexander Sanchez, facility administrator of the IAH Secure Adult Detention Center, and his administrative assistant, Dendra Butler, recently spoke to the Rotary Club of Livingston about IAH, a private facility operated by MTC (Management and Training Corporation). IAH Secure Adult Detention Center is an immigration detention facility that is located at 3400 FM 350 South in Livingston.

According to Butler, MTC operates 22 job corps centers, 23 correctional facilities, 13 prisons, three community release centers, seven detention centers, 19 treatment programs, two outpatient behavioral health programs and one workforce development site.

Sanchez has been with MTC for 18 years and has been administrator of the local facility for nearly three years. He said the local facility holds up to 1,000 detainees, with security levels of low, medium and high. All of the detainees are adult males.

Sanchez said the two customers of IAH are the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Marshals Service. He said the ICE detainees have not broken any laws but have come into the country illegally; whereas the detainees being held for the U.S. Marshals Service have committed crimes and are waiting for trial. He said the crimes the detainees have committed are predominantly drugs or firearms related. The facility is audited according to the National Detention Standards.

Sanchez said the population changes weekly and serves over 29 different nationalities. The week he addressed the Rotary Club, his three largest populations were 340 detainees from Honduras, 119 detainees from Columbia and 73 detainees from Ecuador. He said communication with the detainees is assisted through a translator hotline.

Sanchez took the opportunity to praise his medical staff, reporting that they recently had a detainee in custody who had a collapsed lung and did not know it and the medical staff saved his life.

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He said the detainees are housed in dormitories and the facility has regular contests for cleanest dorms. Those that win are awarded special food items such as a meal from Chick-fil-A or Burger King or a pizza from Little Caesars. He said it helps the staff because the detainees keep their areas clean.

Sanchez said the average length of stay is eight days. He said he tells his detainees, “I get it. This isn’t home. What can I do to make it better?” He said the detainees participate in art contests, health fairs and are given popsicles to mitigate the heat. They work 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles and then glue them together and hang them on the walls of the facility in an attempt to add a little bit of color. He said the philosophy of the center is the acronym BIONIC which stands for “Believe it or not, I care.”

The facility is air conditioned and has a barber shop, game room and large recreation area with exercise machines, volleyball courts and soccer fields. He said they also have a quality of work program through which detainees may volunteer for work assignments and are paid $1 a day.

“I have great staff. They do a great job. The majority of them come from Livingston,” Sanchez said.

In other business, the club heard from a young woman whose life has been touched by meth.

“Don’t Meth with Me” is an initiative started by the club to educate children about what meth is and how it can affect them. Presentations are made to every fifth grader at every school in the county. The goal is to educate local children before the drug dealers get to them. The hope is that everyone will take on the challenge to stop the meth epidemic.

Chloe, a Big Sandy ISD student, addressed the club, talking about her separation from her siblings and her parents due to her mother’s meth addiction. “It has been one of the worst feelings because we love her and hate to see her like this. She’s been in and out of prison several times and is currently serving a four-year sentence. She’s lost her friends, her family and everything.”