The press conference on the Georgia detention center story has started. First speaker is a staff attorney at Project South - Priyanka Bhat - does whistleblower advocacy. Whistleblower filed 9/8 regarding COVID issues at LaSalle. 1

Project South filed a larger complaint to the ICE inspector general. No testing of detainees for COVID despite symptoms and requests. 2

Dawn Wooten, a nurse at the detention center, is now up. This is the whistleblower. She has been employed for several years there. She is a sickle cell sufferer and single parent so she’s been very cautious. 3

No testing of anyone until June. No sanitizing. No PPE. She wasn’t provided a mask. She complained about no testing for symptomatic detainees. Was told that detainees would fake having COVID if that was an option. 4

She got demoted for complaining too much. Last straw was when she became symptomatic and she was written up for not coming in to work. Then she was demoted again. 5

Next - Kimberly Bollo-Aponte - Program Coordinator with Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. Over the last few years, LAHR has observed problems with for profit detention centers - lack of food, medical neglect. 6

No woman should undergo surgery without informed consent. People who complained were put in isolation and otherwise punished. 7