GEO Group has asked a federal judge to dismiss two lawsuits

A for-profit prison company, the GEO Group, has asked a federal judge to dismiss two lawsuits challenging its practice of paying inmates only $1 a day for tasks such as janitorial or kitchen work. Washington State’s minimum wage is $11 an hour. “The Washington Attorney General’s Office argued that it is entitled to enforce the minimum wage law against GEO just as it’s entitled to enforce it against any other company in Washington. While the state has determined that its own prisons don’t have to pay inmates minimum wage, it’s made no such determinations about private detention facilities, said assistant attorney general Marsha Chien.”