Private Prison Operator Fails to Undo $23 Million Verdict (2)

GEO Group Inc. lost its federal appeals court bid to overturn a $23.2 million jury award over the private prison operator’s practice of paying civil immigrant detainees $1 per day for work in detention facilities.

A divided three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Thursday that a Washington state minimum wage law that covers immigrant detainees who cook and serve food and operate the laundry service at their facility “applies equally” to all private employers regardless of their contractual relationship with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to operate the Northwest ICE Processing Center in ...