Are Private Prisons Using Forced Labor?

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver will hear arguments Nov. 15 in a case that could change the future of the $5 billion private prison industry. Judges will decide whether a district court was correct in February when it certified a class action on behalf of about 60,000 current and former detainees who are suing GEO Group Inc., one of the largest U.S. private prison companies, for allegedly violating federal anti-trafficking laws by coercing them to work for free under threat of solitary confinement.

The case was first filed in 2014 by a group of immigrants who had ...