The US Government Printing Office – Chicago Procurement has posted a contract open for bidding for some 350,000 copies of the National Detainee Handbook.

Per Jacket Number 735-412/413, the GPO requests 221,367 copies of the handbook in Spanish and 129,567 in English. The GPO requests expedited delivery of the prints, requesting a delivery date of April 29, 2011, less than two weeks from today.

The original Jacket Number 735-412/413 is no longer available at the GPO web site, but a cached version can be accessed here.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement currently shows a ‘404 page not found error‘ for the page on ICE’s web site where the handbook was originally stored. You can view the National Detainee Handbook (Dated 2007) via Scribd.

According to a 2008 detention standard guide from ICE, the handbook is to be provided to all individuals detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It is not clear whether the guidelines in the handbook apply just for immigration related detentions.

According to ICE the purpose of the handbook is to provide detainees with an overview of the general rules, regulations, policies, and procedures that ICE is required while detaining someone:

This Detention Standard requires that, upon admission, every detainee be provided comprehensive written orientation materials that describe such matters as the facility’s rules and sanctions, disciplinary system, mail and visiting procedures, grievance system, services, programs, and medical care, in English, Spanish, and other languages and that detainees acknowledge receipt of those materials.

It applies to the following types of facilities housing DRO detainees:

• Service Processing Centers (SPCs);
• Contract Detention Facilities (CDFs); and
• State or local government facilities used by DRO through Intergovernmental Service Agreements (IGSAs) to hold detainees for more than 72 hours.

No information on why the Printing Office has requested expedient printing and delivery of the books has been made available.

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According to Kurt Nimmo of Infowars, this may be part of a broader immigration and/or detention initiative that falls under the auspices of the REX 84 emergency response directive:

In 2003, the government launched Operation Endgame to detain and deport all removable aliens and “suspected terrorists” currently living in the United States by 2012.The federal government has devised contingency plans to round up and intern people it considers “national security threats.” Rex 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, is a contingency plan developed by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who worked for the National Security Council and the Reagan administration. North worked with FEMA on the plan.

Hat tip: Infowars, Activist Post, PoliticalSeer