Company halts work program instead of upping detainee pay

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The company that runs a for-profit immigration jail in Washington state has suspended its detainee work program, rather than pay the detainees minimum wage for cooking, cleaning and other tasks.

FILE - Workers are shown in the kitchen of The GEO Group's immigration detention center in Tacoma, Wash., during a media tour, Sept. 10, 2019. After a federal jury determined on Oct. 27, 2021, that detainee workers were entitled to minimum wage for cooking, cleaning and other work they perform, the company suspended the work program pending an appeal, rather than increase the detainees' pay.

But last week, a federal jury ruled that Soares and other detainees who cook, clean, do laundry and cut hair at the for-profit lockup in Tacoma were entitled to Washington’s minimum wage, $13.69 an hour. The multibillion-dollar company that owns the jail was ordered to pay more than $23 million in back pay and unjust profits to current and former detainees and to Washington state.

Further, they said, not being able to work makes it harder for detainees to buy extra food at the center’s commissary, supplementing what they consider to be inadequate meals provided by GEO. Two lawsuits were filed in 2017 over detainee pay — one by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, and one by attorneys for the detainees. They accused GEO of profiting on the backs of captive workers.The cases were consolidated for trial, and a U.S. District Court jury ruled on Oct. 27 that the detainees were entitled to minimum wage. It ordered GEO to give more than 10,000 current and former detainees $17.3 million in back pay dating to 2014.

A federal appeals court panel in that case found the detainees were not entitled to minimum wage because they were “not in an employer-employee relationship but in a detainer-detainee relationship.”

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cryborg Greed is a disgusting trait. So is racism.

No jails should be for profit. That's an immediate conflict of interest.

This country angers me. For profit prison should never have been allowed.

Nobody pointing out that if these detainees can’t legally be employed in the U.S. then how is this POS jail company paying them to work?

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