Day Three- His Name was Nebane.
CORRECTION: Several times I mentioned Nebane passing away on October 1. Reporting from Buzzfeed actually passed on September 26.
Sandwiched between one of the omnipresent toll highways that San Diego has become known for, the massive calpine power plant, and mountains of scrub-brush that extend all the way to the border- is the Otay Mesa Detention Facility. So far this trip I had exclusively visited Geo Group facilities- which have a penchant for large concrete barrier walls and tiny blue shade tarps for prisoners to huddle under. Not here at Otay.
When you first pull into Otay, you are greeted with a Large Sign that refers to you as a “customer” along side a pole that has chains wrapped around it- a bit on the nose- for my taste, but I don’t know much to start with.
Otay Mesa is a shining altar to the joys of razor wire, with CoreCivic wrapping in lovingly around their facilities not unlike your friends Father who is WAY too into Christmas and just way overdoes it with garland and egg nog. The layers of pain garland are two or three layers deep in some places, with it seemingly casually hung from rafters around the “DETAINMENT PODS”.
I’ll be honest. The audio above was really hard to think about- so I left it raw. Yesterday a guy named Nebane Abienwi died of a Stroke in custody at this facility and I didn’t find out until after I had left the facility. I did a drive by last night and likely saw them taking him away.
Three questions I have:
Were there documented health complaints leading up to the day of his death.
Did CoreCivic fulfill the Emergency Health provisions of it’s 24/7 requirement in it’s US Marshall Service Contract (See Below)
What was the response time between initial emergency notification and emergency response?
