TACOMA, Wash. - The private prison company The GEO Group has been ordered to pay the Washington state Attorney General’s Office nearly $4.5 million in legal fees, after the state sued to force the company to pay detainees at its immigration lockup in Tacoma minimum wage for work they perform there.
A federal jury ruled in October that detainees held at the Northwest detention center are entitled to minimum wage for cooking, cleaning and other tasks, rather than $1 per day.
READ MORE: Federal jury: Immigrant detainees are owed minimum wage
The company was ordered to pay former detainees as well as the state more than $23 million in all.
The judgments have been put on hold while GEO appeals, but in the meantime U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan on Tuesday awarded the state nearly $4.5 million in attorney fees.
RELATED: Private prison company ordered to pay $23.2M in detainee minimum wage cases
READ MORE: Company contracting with Tacoma detention center halts work program instead of upping detainee pay
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