Class Action Suit Claims CoreCivic Violates Human Trafficking, Labor Laws

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CoreCivic, Inc., formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America, is the defendant in a 36-page proposed class action lawsuit alleging the company operates its detention facilities in violation of state and federal human trafficking and labor laws. The lawsuit’s two lead plaintiffs, former civil immigration detainees who were incarcerated and worked at the defendant’s 1,492-bed Otay Mesa Detention Center in California, alleges CoreCivic illegally forces and/or coerces detainees to “clean, maintain and operate” its detention facilities.

“In some instances CoreCivic pays detainees $1 per day, and in other instances detainees are not compensated with wages at all for their labor and services,” the lawsuit claims, adding that the defendant reported nearly $1.8 billion in total revenues from 2016. Detainees who were paid small wages for their work, the case alleges, were only allowed to spend these funds at CoreCivic’s commissary.

The plaintiffs allege the defendant threatened to punish detainees who refused to engage in tasks that the case claims included cleaning the entire facility, preparing meals for law enforcement events, clerical work, providing barber services, and preparing clothing for new inmates. The case claims punishments for non-compliant detainees could range from physical restraint to “sustained restriction, deprivation, and violation of their liberty, and solitary confinement.”

At its core, the lawsuit takes issue with the entire for-profit detention system into which many undocumented immigrants are thrown into to face removal proceedings.

The full complaint can be read below.