Jury says private prison profiteer must pay $17.3 million to immigrants forced to work for $1 a day

Daily Kos Staff

Monday November 01, 2021 · 12:42 PM PDT

2021/11/01 · 12:42

BOCA RATON, FLORIDA - AUGUST 12: Activists and protesters including the group Never Again Action are seen as they protest outside the headquarters of the private prison company Geo Group on August 12, 2019 in Boca Raton, Florida. The demonstrators were protesting the day after the Jewish holiday of Tisha Bâ€™Av against what they say are the poor conditions inside facilities run by the Geo Group, which runs federal and state prisons, as well as immigration detention centers. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) — Activists and protesters including the group Never Again Action are seen as they protest outside the headquarters of the private prison company Geo Group on Aug. 12, 2019 in Boca Raton, Florida.

On Oct. 27, a court determined that GEO Group violated Washington state’s minimum wage law by paying immigrants detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPIC) just $1 per day for their forced labor. A next step was for the court to determine how much the private prison profiteer owed immigrants, ”which could total millions, the Associated Press said.

The court has now come back with a number: $17.3 million.

“According to the suit, at the time of the detention center’s contract renewal in 2015, the center was projected to generate $57 million in revenue every year, operating at full capacity and housing up to 1,575 immigrant detainees,” law firm Schroeter Goldmark & Bender said. But state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who partnered with the firm, said “several former and current GEO staff testified that GEO chose to pay detainee workers only $1 per day” for forced labor, “despite the fact that GEO knew it had the ability to pay more.”

Among these victims was Nigerian asylum-seeker Goodluck Nwauzor, who during the eight months he was detained at NWIPC was forced to work for $1 a day (the facility has also recently been warned about the misuse of a toxic chemical by the EPA). Nwauzor would eventually be granted asylum in 2017, becoming a permanent resident the following year. “My heart is filled with joy,” he said in reaction to the jury’s decision.

The court’s “precedent-setting” decision stands to affect up to 10,000 class members, legal advocates said. ”It's still up to U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan to determine how much money the company must pay the state on its claim of unjust enrichment,” NPR reported. The hope is that immigrants elsewhere will see similar justice, because this type of forced labor is in no way unique. In Georgia, detained immigrants at Stewart Detention Center were threatened with solitary confinement (which is torture) if they refused to work. In California, detained immigrants sometimes weren’t paid their meager wages at all.

Of course, the ultimate hope is that private prisons cease to exist at all. “Profiting off the labor of a dollar-a-day immigrant worker is unconscionable, and if not for brave people like Goodluck Nwauzor who stepped forward, GEO may not have been held accountable,” attorney Jamal Whitehead said. “We’re grateful to all the courageous men and women who came forward to share their experiences throughout our five-year investigation and prosecution of these claims,” co-counsel Andrew Free said. “Their unwavering belief that a better future is possible lit the path to the new reality this decision heralds.”

Jury says private prison profiteer must pay $17.3 million to immigrants forced to work for $1 a day

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