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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJury says private prison profiteer must pay $17.3 million to immigrants forced to work for $1 a day
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/11/1/2061529/-Jury-says-prison-profiteer-must-pay-17-3-million-to-immigrants-forced-to-work-for-1-a-day
On Oct. 27, a court determined that GEO Group violated Washington states minimum wage law by paying immigrants detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPIC) just $1 per day for their forced labor. The next step was for the judge to determine how much the private prison profiteer unfairly gained from its wage law violations spanning more than 15 years, which could total millions, the Associated Press said.
According to the suit, at the time of the detention centers 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 jurys decision.
The courts 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 werent paid their meager wages at all.
*snip*
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,357 posts)leftstreet
(36,109 posts)Backseat Driver
(4,393 posts)George C Zoley, Chairman of Board of Directors
Founder
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Zoley
Brian R Evans
Sr VP and Chief Financial Officer
https://www.geogroup.com/management_team
[snip]"Prior to joining The GEO Group, Mr. Evans worked for Arthur Andersen LLP as a Manager in the Audit and Business Advisory Services Group from 1994 until joining GEO. During his tenure at Arthur Andersen, Mr. Evans supervised the financial statement audits of both public and private companies and city and county governments. From 1990 until 1994, Mr. Evans served as an Officer in the Supply Corps of the United States Navy and was assigned to the USS Monterey in Jacksonville, Florida."[snip]
Well, all the best of a quick and filthy look - surprise, surprise - NOT!
Brainfodder
(6,423 posts)Lucinda
(31,170 posts)calimary
(81,318 posts)A dollar a day?
How about imposing a sentence where the guilty are forced to work for a dollar a day?
Taste of their own medicine. See how they like it.
Evolve Dammit
(16,743 posts)The Jungle 1
(4,552 posts)How the fuck is this not slavery??????
cinematicdiversions
(1,969 posts)The Jungle 1
(4,552 posts)"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
Well there is something to be proud of America still allows slavery.
The 13th has a very foul history in the south. Let's see we will lock um up and then we have slaves again.
So apparently the immigrants are not stealing our jobs it is the prisoners. I knew trump was wrong.
Thank you for the education. I think.
monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)ShazamIam
(2,575 posts)libertarians keep saying this kind of plantation style prison labor doesn't affect wages, does anyone here believe it?
rdking647
(5,113 posts)hit them personally in teh pocketbook