CoreCivic to Disclose Detainee Rights in Forced Labor Case Deal

Private prison operator CoreCivic Inc. has agreed to provide every detained person at a Georgia immigrant detention center with a document detailing their rights as workers as part of a deal to settle a forced labor case.

The settlement announced Thursday resolves a lawsuit brought by several prior detainees at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., who alleged they were coerced into participating in what was supposed to be a voluntary work program. The company denied the allegations.

The plaintiffs lost their bid for class certification in March. The parties notified the US District Court for the Middle District of Georgia last month that they had reached a settlement weeks before a jury trial was scheduled to begin.

Under the settlement, the document provided to detainees will state that they can’t be forced to work and have the right to prompt monetary compensation, relevant training, necessary safety equipment, and respect from staff. The documents will be provided in both Spanish and English.

No financial award was announced as part of the deal.

The case is one of several lawsuits against CoreCivic and GEO Group Inc. accusing the private prison companies—which contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to run immigrant detention centers—of forced labor and wage and hour violations.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed class certification last year for detained workers at CoreCivic detention centers in California that levied similar allegations. Another case pending at the Ninth Circuit will determine whether Washington state’s minimum wage law applies to immigrants at a GEO Group-run ICE facility there. GEO Group is looking to overturn a $23.2 million jury verdict for violating the state law.

The document required in the settlement of the Georgia CoreCivic case “is a call to action to those in immigration jails to keep fighting for justice, and it makes clear that they should not face the abuses that I suffered at Stewart,” lead plaintiff Wilhen Hill Barrientos said in a statement.

Meredith Stewart, senior supervising attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center and counsel for the plaintiffs, called the settlement document “a bill of rights for detained workers at Stewart and a tool for workers to advocate for justice beyond this one facility.”

Project South and Perkins Coie LLP also represented the plaintiffs. CoreCivic was represented by Struck Love Bojanowski & Acedo PLC.

Steve Owen, vice president of communications at CoreCivic, said the plaintiffs’ allegations “are baseless and remain unproven.”

“All work programs at our U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities are completely voluntary and, in fact, most detainees at SDC choose not to participate,” he said in a statement. “The stipulations of this settlement restate policies and practices we’ve had in place for years at SDC and all CoreCivic facilities that house ICE detainees.”

The case is Barrientos v. CoreCivic Inc., M.D. Ga., No. 4:18-cv-00070, settlement agreement announced 10/19/23.