Employees and other witnesses of forced labor at CoreCivic ICE Eloy Center and other locations may be able to help victims by coming forward.

Private Prison Companies

There are immigrant detention centers around the country. Instead of investing time and money into managing all of these locations, the U.S. government contracts the management of some of their facilities to private prison companies such as CoreCivic.

The government pays these companies to run their immigrant detention centers, which allows the companies to enjoy a steady revenue of taxpayer dollars. This model has been criticized by advocates due to the alleged lapse in quality experienced at these facilities. Randy Capps, the Director of Research for the Migration Policy Institute, says that there may be too few staff members at these facilities and insufficient training.

“When you have kind of weak standards and you have a for-profit motive, you wind up with understaffing and you wind up with lack of services and activities,” Capps told Axios. “That’s where you get to health problems, and you probably have mental health problems, too.”

Some ICE detention centers are managed through this model. CoreCivic runs several ICE detention centers across the country. The following CoreCivic facilities are found in Arizona:

• Central Arizona Florence Complex (Florence, AZ)
• Eloy Detention Center (Eloy, AZ)
• Florence Correctional Center (Florence, AZ)
• La Palma Correctional Facility (Eloy, AZ)

Recent allegations suggest that detainees at these facilities may be subject to forced labor.

CoreCivic Forced Labor Allegations

Recently, the treatment of detainees at CoreCivic ICE facilities has been criticized by the public. The private prison company has been accused of a forced labor scheme that borders on slavery.

Former detainees claim that they were made to participate in forced labor programs that required them to work for as little as $1 a day. Detainees are allegedly forced to do maintenance for the facilities, including laundry, food, and cleaning. Some detainees claim they are paid only 50 cents an hour for the backbreaking labor.

After working for the facility, detainees are allegedly restricted to spending their wages to call their loved ones or at facility shops that sell essentials such as food and toothpaste.

In exchange for performing essential labor, detainees are allegedly underpaid, some to the point of slave wages. This reportedly allows CoreCivic to cut down on the cost of labor because they are not required to hire full time employees for upkeep of the facilities.

Some individuals claim that CoreCivic has gone as far as prohibiting the spread of information without written permission from a facility’s warden. The confidentiality clauses of the volunteers’ Code of Ethics form reportedly state: “I will not engage in the delivery or discussion of facility and/or offender specific information outside the performance of my duties. […] I will have no media contact related to the services I provide or any information I gain as a result of having access to the facility, the inmate population, or facility staff.”

The legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in San Diego told The San Diego Tribune that the free speech restrictions placed on volunteers are “unconscionable”.

“I don’t say that kind of thing lightly,” the director said. “This is an absolutely unconstitutional attempt to stifle speech and evade accountability.”

How Do I Help?

If you are a volunteer who witnessed forced labor practices at the CoreCivic ICE Eloy Center or other CoreCivic facilities, you may be able to help victims of these practices by coming forward and speaking up.

By “blowing the whistle” on these practices, individuals may be able to help mistreated detainees at the CoreCivic ICE Eloy Center. Additionally, if detainees participate in a lawsuit against the private prison company, they may be able to recover a portion of any damages collected by a CoreCivic forced labor lawsuit.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.