Visions from the Inside

_“I am afraid that if I stay in this center something could happen to me or my daughter because ICE tries to cover up everything and all news that happen here.” _

-Polyane Soares de Oliveira, #A 200-022-852, Brazilian immigrant, mother of Rhynasa Luisa Duarte, who was 10 years old in 2015, #A 202-004-494. Both were detained at Karnes Immigrant Detention center in Texas in 2015.

I created this piece to depict both the dignity and the suffering that women endure in for-profit detention centers. Immigrant women detained in Karnes County Detention Center have endured physical abuse, rape by prison guards, and the constant sicknesses of their children. In this piece, I wanted to represent the ways in which immigrant prisons degrade and abuse women. I used a jagged brush stroke to show the harshness of detention, as well as the human suffering of families who come to this...