Central American Refugees Say They Were Assaulted, Scalded in Prison

Eight refugees from Central America filed a lawsuit against the GEO Group for a pattern of alleged unconstitutional abuse including pepper spray attacks, assault and battery, and “intentional scalding,” at their Adelanto, California prison, according to the Courthouse News Service. The plaintiffs claim that this assault began in June 2017, after they initiated a collective hunger strike to protest inhumane and unsanitary living conditions. “In response to this peaceful attempt to call attention to the facility’s depraved and unlawful conditions, Defendants violently attacked, pepper sprayed, and beat Plaintiffs. Defendants then placed Plaintiffs in segregation for ten days—completely isolated from the outside world—as punishment,” the lawsuit reads. “Plaintiffs suffer, and continue to suffer, considerable damage as a result of Defendants’ misconduct.”