A private immigration prison in Tacoma must pay more than $23 million in back pay and penalties for violating Washington’s minimum wage law by paying people it detains just $1 a day, a unanimous Washington state Supreme Court confirmed Thursday.
But the case, which has seesawed between federal and state court, still remains on appeal in a federal appeals court.
The Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma can hold up to 1,575 people as they await review of their immigration status and potential deportation. Under its contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the facility must provide a voluntary work program for people it detains, giving them the option to earn money while in custody.
But the prison, which is operated by GEO Group, a Florida-based company that manages more than 90 detention and reentry facilities, paid workers only $1 a day for the work they did, like cooking and cleaning.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson and a group of detained people, separately, sued the prison in 2017, alleging they were violating Washington’s minimum wage law.
In 2021, a jury ruled in their favor, ordering the company to pay $17.3 million in back wages to the workers. A few days later, a federal judge ordered the company to pay an additional $5.9 million in profits to Washington state, saying that’s how much GEO Group had enriched itself over more than a decade of paying below minimum wage.
GEO Group, which has $2.4 billion in annual revenue, appealed both rulings, arguing that detained workers are not “employees” covered by the state’s minimum wage law. It also argued that it was covered by an exemption to the law, which allows publicly owned prisons and treatment facilities to pay sub-minimum wage.
The company argued that it shouldn’t have to pay minimum wage when the state doesn’t pay minimum wage to people in its own state prisons.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit asked the Washington state Supreme Court to settle some matters of state law before it heard the appeal.
The state Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the trial court was correct — that there is a meaningful distinction in state law between private and publicly owned detention facilities.
“We conclude that detained workers at a private detention facility are
‘employees’ within the meaning of the [state minimum wage act],” Justice Charles Johnson wrote for the unanimous court.
The state minimum wage law exempts “state, county or municipal” detention facilities.
“The legislature, by specifying that the exemption applies to persons detained in ‘state, county, or municipal’ institutions distinguished public institutions from private institutions,” Johnson wrote. “If the legislature intended to also exclude persons detained in private institutions, it would have done so explicitly.”
Ferguson, in an emailed statement, called the ruling “a major victory for Washington workers and basic human dignity.”
Christopher Ferreira, a GEO Group spokesperson, said the company is “disappointed that the Washington Supreme Court chose not to follow uniform precedent from courts all over the country holding that minimum wage laws do not apply to persons held in custodial detention facilities.”
The prison in Tacoma has long been contentious. It has seen hunger strikes and protests over food and sanitation conditions. GEO Group this year confirmed it used “chemical agents” — possibly tear gas — after discovering contraband razor blades.
A 2021 state law sought to shut down the facility, the only privately run prison in the state. But that law, which passed with some bipartisan support, was rendered toothless by a federal appeals court decision in California that said a similar state law there violated the Constitution by interfering with federal government powers.
Washington conceded this year that it was bound by the California ruling, and would not enforce the law.
The Northwest Detention Center has housed an average of 649 people a day over the past year or so, according to an ICE database. But the agency’s contract with GEO Group ensures it is paid for a minimum of 1,181 people a day, regardless of how many people are actually incarcerated.
