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Prisons are profiting from forced labo
The Washington Post. (June 30, 2018) Lexile Measure: 1410L.
COPYRIGHT 2018 The Washington Post
Full Text:
Article Commentary
"The lawsuits allege that GEO Group and CoreCivic compelled the detainees to work cleaning toilets, showers and communal housing units
without pay and under threat of punishment."
Alexandra F. Levy is a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School in Notre Dame, Indiana. She also serves as a senior staff attorney at
the Human Trafficking Legal Center, which filed an amicus
ief in support of immigrant detainees in the case Menocal v. GEO Group for the US
Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in August 2017. In the following viewpoint, Levy alleges that government-contracted co
ectional facilities
un by GEO Group and CoreCivic profit from prisoners' forced labor, as outlined in five lawsuits filed against these companies. The autho
describes several custodial tasks that were required of inmates at these facilities, the majority of whom were detained for immigration violations
under the presidential administration of Donald Trump. Levy condemns the use of forced labor, especially its use to exploit an already-
disadvantaged population. She echoes concerns expressed in the lawsuits that widespread instances of human trafficking have taken jobs that could
have been filled by US citizens.
As you read, consider the following questions:
According to Levy, what are the plaintiffs of these lawsuits seeking from GEO Group and CoreCivic?1.
What evidence does the author provide to support her assertion that private for-profit prisons stand to benefit from the policies of the Trump2.
administration?
In your opinion, should detainees held in federally contracted private prisons, including those detained for alleged immigration violations, be3.
covered by federal protections against forced labor? Why or why not?
Byline: Alexandra F. Levy
Who stands to gain from the Trump administration's immigration policies? Not the children who have been forcibly seized from their parents. Not
asylum seekers fleeing violence in their countries. Not the United States - or its standing in the world. One possibility? Private for-profit prison
companies.
The two largest private prison contractors in the United States, GEO Group and CoreCivic, house thousands of immigrant detainees across the
country. These corporations now face allegations that they force immigrant detainees to perform unpaid labor inside their facilities.
Since President Donald Trump took office, immigrant detainees have
ought five separate human trafficking and forced labor lawsuits against
these two private prison companies. (An earlier case was filed in XXXXXXXXXXThe lawsuits allege that GEO Group and CoreCivic compelled the
detainees to work cleaning toilets, showers and communal housing units without pay and under threat of punishment.
Two San Diego residents, Sylvester Owino and Jonathan Gomez,
ought one such suit. Owino and Gomez allege that at various times between
2005 and 2015, they were detained for immigration violations at a CoreCivic-run facility called the Otay Mesa Detention Center. They claim that
during their respective detentions, CoreCivic forced them and other detainees to scrub bathrooms, wash windows and clean other parts of the
facility, all under threat of physical restraint and solitary confinement. Now, they are seeking to recover what they say they are owed - and trying
to prohibit CoreCivic from profiting from such practices in the future.
Additional suits filed against CoreCivic in California, Texas and Georgia make similar allegations, as do suits filed against GEO Group in
California and Colorado. GEO Group has denied the allegations, arguing in a court filing that "the household duties expected of detainees do not
involve GEO in 'trafficking' persons for forced labor." And while a spokesman for CoreCivic said the company doesn't comment on pending
litigation, the company also maintains that its programs are "completely voluntary" and follow federal standards.
But if the allegations are true, then both companies are violating federal human trafficking laws that prohibit forced labor and involuntary
servitude.
Courts are taking these lawsuits seriously. Just last month, a federal judge in California - a Republican appointee - rejected CoreCivic's argument
that human trafficking laws do not apply to private detention facilities under contract with the federal government, thus allowing the case to
continue.
Similarly, a federal court of appeals in Colorado recently ruled that a human trafficking case against GEO Group can proceed as a class action. The
class includes as many as 60,000 cu
ent and former detainees who allege that they were held in forced labor, prompting GEO Group to respond in
an appeal that the suit "poses a potentially catastrophic risk to GEO's ability to honor its contracts with the federal government."
The implications of these cases reach far beyond the individual civil cases. Many of the immigrants detained at GEO Group and CoreCivic
facilities would not legally be permitted to work outside the detention centers' fences. These lawsuits make a startling claim: Private detention
corporations, touted as "job-creators," are using detainee labor to avoid creating jobs for U.S. citizens.
Indeed, individuals in a lawsuit against GEO Group allege that the company paid only one janitor in its 1,500-bed facility in Colorado. Instead of
hiring U.S. workers, they allege, GEO Group forces detainees to work. Bryan Lopez, a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center team
litigating one of the cases, recently observed that the U.S. government contractors running these facilities are among the largest beneficiaries of
undocumented labor in the United States.
A Fe
uary 2017 leaked Trump administration memo revealed the administration's plan to more than double the number of immigration detention
eds in the United States from 34,000 to 80,000. That was good news for for-profit prison companies, as reflected in their surging stock prices and
the promise of future government contracts. But the lawsuits allege that these profits come on the backs of immigrant detainees held in forced
labor. And forced labor, even in a detention center, is a crime.
- - -
Levy is a senior staff attorney at the Human Trafficking Legal Center, which filed an amicus
ief in support of immigrant detainees in Menocal v.
GEO Group.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Levy, Alexandra F. "Prisons are profiting from forced labor." Washington Post, 30 June 2018. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,
http:
link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A XXXXXXXXXX/OVIC?u=lincclin_mdcc&sid=OVIC&xid=f6e0cab7. Accessed 25 Mar. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A XXXXXXXXXX