Private Prison Corporation Ask Immigrants to Bear Cost of Their Detention

ATLANTA (SPLC) — Attorneys with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Perkins Coie LLP, Project South and the Law Office of Andrew R. Free filed a motion to dismiss CoreCivic’s counterclaim against the plaintiffs in the forced labor lawsuit, Barrientos vs. CoreCivic.

The private detention company filed their countersuit in June claiming that if the plaintiffs win their case, they would owe the corporation the cost of their detention at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, GA.

CoreCivic alleged that if it were ordered to pay migrants for the work they were forced to perform, those detained people should pay CoreCivic for the very same services the company is already getting paid by the U.S. government to provide, at a profit.

“CoreCivic’s shameless counterclaim proves that the corporation prioritizes fattening its own pockets over caring for the people it detains,” said CJ Sandley, a senior staff attorney with SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project. “The counterclaim offers a window into how the company views Stewart, which already has the reputation of being a miserable place, as being first and foremost an opportunity for CoreCivic to generate maximum profit.”

According to the lawsuit, CoreCivic violated federal anti-trafficking laws by coercing detained migrants to work in its “Dollar-a-Day” program, in which migrants were paid as little as $1 per day to clean, maintain and operate Stewart. While saving CoreCivic hundreds of dollars per week per detained worker, the scheme forced migrants to work by threatening them with solitary confinement, the loss of access to basic necessities like personal hygiene products and denial of phone calls to loved ones.

SPANISH:

ATLANTA (La Opinión) — La organización Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) y Project South presentaron una moción para desestimar una contrademanda de CoreCivic, el mayor operador de centros de detención de inmigrantes en el país que trabaja con Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE), en su batalla legal para detener el trabajo forzoso en una prisión de Georgia.

“La desvergonzada contrademanda de CoreCivic demuestra que la corporación prioriza engordar sus propios bolsillos antes que cuidar a las personas que detiene”, manifestó el abogado CJ Sandley, del Immigrant Justice Project de SPLC, en una declaración divulgada a la prensa.

De acuerdo con SPLC, que presentó una demanda contra CoreCivic en el 2018 en nombre de los inmigrantes recluidos en el Centro de Detención Stewart, en Georgia, esta corporación alegó en su moción que si los presos ganan su caso, le deberán el costo de su detención.

“La contrademanda ofrece una ventana de cómo la empresa ve a Stewart, que ya tiene la reputación de ser un lugar miserable, de ser ante todo una oportunidad para generar el máximo beneficio”, sostuvo Sandley.

El Centro de Detención de Stewart, ubicado en la pequeña localidad de Lumpkin, en el suroeste de Georgia y a unas 140 millas de Atlanta, es una de las mayores prisiones de inmigrantes indocumentados del país, con una capacidad para casi 1.800 reclusos, y, al igual que muchas otras en el resto del país, es administrada por CoreCivic.