Judge: Prison company to pay Washington $4.5M in legal fees
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — The private prison company The GEO Group has been ordered to pay the Washington state Attorney General's Office nearly $4.5 million in legal fees, after the state sued to force the company to pay detainees at its immigration lockup in Tacoma minimum wage for work they perform there.
A federal jury ruled in October that detainees held at the Northwest detention center are entitled to minimum wage for cooking, cleaning and other tasks, rather than $1 per day.
The company was ordered to pay former detainees as well as the state more than $23 million in all.
The judgments have been put on hold while GEO appeals, but in the meantime U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan on Tuesday awarded the state nearly $4.5 million in attorney fees.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/judge-prison-company-to-pay-washington-4-5m-in-legal-fees/ar-AARODbL