Private Prisons and Detention Policy

The Supreme Court unanimously refused GEO Group’s bid for an immediate appeal in a Colorado lawsuit alleging the private ICE contractor forced immigrant detainees to clean common areas for $1 a day, a denial the court described as a procedural defeat rather than a ruling on the merits. GEO had argued it is immune from suit as a federal contractor after a trial judge rejected that defense; the company—which manages or owns about 77,000 beds across 98 facilities and recently obtained a contract for a Newark immigration center—also faces a separate Washington state judgment ordering it to pay more than $23 million over similar detainee‑labor practices.