After being sued for violating state-level human trafficking laws, the nation's largest private prison company is pushing the U.S. Supreme Court to grant private government contractors like itself blanket immunity from such lawsuits and many others. This case - and another involving a military contractor - could deliver sweeping immunity to federal contractors, if they get the ruling they want from the high court, allowing them to operate with even greater impunity than they already do.
"It has come to our attention that individuals visiting their loved ones have been routinely subjected to inhumane and unsafe conditions while waiting for entry into the facility," the group wrote in a letter addressed to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and GEO Group CEO David Donahue. In July, an appeals court struck down New Jersey's ban on private prisons.
Several of the men said that they didn't have bathroom access on the plane - or even seats. They flew shackled in the cargo area of the plane. They'd been transferred from the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, to the Anchorage Correctional Complex, a facility run by the state Department of Corrections.
