Human Rights Archives - Constantine Cannon

Can the False Claims Act Protect Immigration Detainees from Forced Labor?

Posted 07/2/21

By William Greenlaw A recent human rights case raises a novel question of False Claims Act applicability: when private immigration detention facilities defraud the government by forcing individuals into labor. The federal government has a vast regulatory and statutory scheme meant to stop federal contractors from using trafficked labor. But forced labor in detention facilities has historically been overlooked....

Tagged in: Correctional Services Fraud, FCA Federal, Government Procurement Fraud, Human Rights, Importance of Whistleblowers, Whistleblower Eligibility,

Arizona Software Glitch Keeps Prisoners Incarcerated, Until the Whistleblowers Showed Up

Posted 03/5/21

In a story straight out of a dystopian novel, a faulty computer system has kept Arizona prisoners locked up beyond their release date. A government contractor, Business & Decision, North America, built a system that is supposed to calculate each person’s release date. In exchange, the contractor received $24 million from the state. The system, however, didn’t work, leaving hundreds of people behind bars who...

Tagged in: Contract Non-Compliance, Correctional Services Fraud, Government Procurement Fraud, Human Rights, Importance of Whistleblowers,

Constantine Cannon continues its commitment to ending abuses in private detention facilities

Posted 02/17/21

This week, Constantine Cannon is proud to continue its representation as pro bono counsel to Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom for Immigrants in supporting California’s efforts to end the use of private immigration detention facilities in the state. Last spring, we filed a “friend of the court” brief for these same organizations in the district court in opposition to the Geo...

Tagged in: Correctional Services Fraud, Government Procurement Fraud, Human Rights,

2020 Whistleblower of the Year Candidate – Dawn Wooten

Posted 01/5/21

Privately run immigration detention facilities have been a stain on our nation’s reputation for years now. The refugees and other immigrants who are detained within their walls suffer family separation, inadequate medical care, lack of basic necessities, inedible food, psychological torture, and even death from easily treatable diseases due to flimsy infection controls. The current pandemic crisis only amplifies...

Tagged in: Correctional Services Fraud, Human Rights, Importance of Whistleblowers, Improper Medical Facility, Whistleblower of the Year,

Why whistleblower advocates should care about the Alien Tort Statute

Posted 12/7/20
By Sarah “Poppy” Alexander

False Claims Act (FCA) lawyers love to talk about our statute’s robust history, signed by Abe Lincoln to hold corporations accountable for cheating the government during the Civil War. The Alien Tort Statute (ATS) is a liability statute with an even longer history—passed as part of the First Judiciary Act in 1789, the ATS grants federal jurisdiction to cases concerning torts in violation of the law of nations. ...

Tagged in: FCA Federal, Human Rights, Whistleblower Eligibility,

Putting a Stop to Illegal Imports from Forced Uyghur Labor

Posted 09/18/20

The world has watched in horror as, starting in 2018, up to two million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities have been arrested, relocated, or otherwise forced into internment centers in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. The government of the People’s Republic of China has separated thousands of Uyghur children from parents, forced methods of control on women, and inflicted physical and psychological...

Tagged in: Customs Fraud, Human Rights, Money Laundering, Whistleblower Eligibility,

Constantine Cannon Files Amicus Brief in Support of California’s Effort to Curb Private Prison Company Abuses

Posted 03/13/20
By Sarah “Poppy” Alexander

Constantine Cannon is proud to represent three leading immigrants rights organizations, Human Rights Watch, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and Freedom For Immigrants in filing a “friend of the court,” or amicus brief, in two cases related to California’s right to ban private prison companies. Last year, California enacted AB 32, which barred private prison companies from operating within the state. The...

Tagged in: Correctional Services Fraud, Government Procurement Fraud, Human Rights,

Immigration Detention Facilities Continue to Pose Fraud Risks

Posted 05/9/19
By Sarah “Poppy” Alexander

Last summer, we wrote about the fraud risks inherent in the massive increase in government spending for immigration detention. Almost one year later, a child’s tragic death again calls attention to failures at the immigration facilities that maintain ever increasing government contracts. On April 30, 2019, a sixteen-year-old boy died at a Southwest Key facility in Brownsville, TX, two weeks after arriving in the...

Tagged in: Contract Non-Compliance, Correctional Services Fraud, Government Procurement Fraud, Human Rights,

The Big Business of Detaining Families Creates a Serious Fraud Risk

Posted 06/21/18

By Poppy Alexander The massive public outcry about family separations at the border has spotlighted an area of federal spending that often gets ignored-the massive business that is immigration detention for children and families. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of HHS, spent approximately $3.4 billion on private companies to shelter and detain these kids in just the last four years. Yet little data...

Tagged in: Correctional Services Fraud, Government Procurement Fraud, Human Rights,

In Their Own Words — Kompass

Posted 01/19/16

-- “It is important for other staff to see that I was vindicated. . . . [O]therwise the message was: ‘If you try to do something similar to what Anders has done these will be the consequences.’”

Anders Kompass, the United Nations director of field operations for the office of the high commissioner for human rights, on being cleared of wrongdoing in connection with his disclosing confidential documents...

Tagged in: Human Rights, In Their Own Words,

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Human Rights

Can the False Claims Act Protect Immigration Detainees from Forced Labor?

Arizona Software Glitch Keeps Prisoners Incarcerated, Until the Whistleblowers Showed Up

Constantine Cannon continues its commitment to ending abuses in private detention facilities

2020 Whistleblower of the Year Candidate – Dawn Wooten

Why whistleblower advocates should care about the Alien Tort Statute

Putting a Stop to Illegal Imports from Forced Uyghur Labor

Constantine Cannon Files Amicus Brief in Support of California’s Effort to Curb Private Prison Company Abuses

Immigration Detention Facilities Continue to Pose Fraud Risks

The Big Business of Detaining Families Creates a Serious Fraud Risk

In Their Own Words — Kompass

-- “It is important for other staff to see that I was vindicated. . . . [O]therwise the message was: ‘If you try to do something similar to what Anders has done these will be the consequences.’”

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