( Photo borrowed from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/nyregion/05detain.html, Few Details on Immigrants Who Died in Custody by Nina Bernstein, May 5, 2008)
Death of Detained Immigrant Inspires Online Game With Goal of Educating Players
by Nina Bernstein
The New York Times, October 5, 2008
The death last year of Boubacar Bah, a Guinean tailor held in a New Jersey jail for overstaying his visa, showed immigration detention to be one of the most secretive corners of American life. But now Mr. Bah’s story is being retold in an unusually public way: in an online video game.
The game at (http://www.homelandgitmo.com/)— created by Breakthrough, an international human rights organization in New York that is trying to get the public behind efforts to strengthen oversight, due process and medical help in immigration detention — uses Mr. Bah’s story to walk players through a simulated detention center, and into the documented ordeals of other detainees. They include a pregnant woman kept in shackles during labor and an Army veteran held for three years while he fought deportation.
The video game (which can be found at http://www.homelandgitmo.com/) casts the player as a reporter seeking clues in the death of Mr. Bah, 52, who suffered a skull fracture and brain hemorrhages in the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey. A cartoon guide leads the way to actual video testimonials of former detainees and information that unlocks the mystery of Mr. Bah’s fate.
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