The multibillion-dollar prison company GEO is doing very well financially. It runs 16 facilities around the country, including the ICE detention center in Tacoma, and its stock price doubled after Election Day.
With the number of ICE detainees now at a five-year high under President Donald Trump, how people are being treated and compensated for their labor is as much an issue as it ever was. The company was paying detainees a dollar a day to do cleaning and other jobs that it would otherwise have to pay contract workers at minimum wage to do.
Washington state sued the company for not paying the state’s minimum wage, and won in federal court in 2021, a decision that was affirmed earlier this year by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The company petitioned last month for a rehearing of its appeal by all 9th Circuit judges.
McKenzie Funk is following this story for ProPublica and joins us with the details.
Contact “Think Out Loud®”
If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983. The call-in phone number during the noon hour is 888-665-5865.