Donald Cohen leads an organization called “In the Public Interest” that keeps tabs on the privatization of public services.
He wrote recently to call attention to ITPI’s report on the banks that finance private prisons.
If you thought Wells Fargo’s fake account scandal was bad, get a load of this.
Wells Fargo is one of six banks keeping the private prison industry in business.
We know a lot about the private prison industry. We’ve found that private prisons increase the chances of people returning to prison and encourage mass incarceration. But we’ve always wanted to follow the money—so that’s what we did.
Our new report, The Banks That Finance Private Prison Companies, uncovers the banks that provide financing to the two largest private prison companies, GEO Group and CoreCivic (formerly CCA). The companies rely on Wells Fargo and other Wall Street banks for money to build new prisons, get huge tax breaks, and expand their control of the criminal justice system. All the while, the banks profit from charging interest and fees.
Private prison companies are licking their lips after Donald Trump’s victory. So are investors. Fortune magazine called CoreCivic “the biggest winner of the election,” since the company’s stock shot up more than 40 percent the next day.
Now we know who else would profit from Trump’s “law and order” policies and plans to deport millions of immigrants.
By providing loans, credit, and bonds to private prison companies, Wells Fargo and banks like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have been complicit in mass incarceration and the criminalization of immigration, and they stand to profit even more.
But we’re fighting back.
The Portland City Council is currently considering a plan to stop borrowing money from banks like Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase that do business with private prison companies. Nationally, the #ForgoWells campaign is urging cities to cut ties with Wells Fargo because of the recent scandal and the bank’s involvement in the private prison industry and the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Support these campaigns and push your city to divest from the banks that keep the private prison industry in business. We need to be innovative in the Trump era, but even more importantly, we need to work together.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’ve been wanting to do this, but not easy to do. Trying to figure out how I can move to a Credit Union.
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It’s easier than you think. Almost everybody can join. I am beyond pleased with mine, Suncoast Credit Union! Excellent customer service, no fees, interest on checking and savings. Since everyone is a shareholder, everyone has an interest in keeping fees low and it’s more of a family feel…plus there’s no CEO making millions in salaries and other assorted bonuses and goodies.
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The credit unions are more trustworthy than big banks. They serve the local communities, and often offer better service with fewer fees. The only downside is they may not have a huge network of connections for those that travel a lot.
The DOJ made a big splash with the announcement that they were phasing out federal services to privatized prisons. Instead, they just renewed a contract with one of them. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/bureau-prisons-renews-contracts-private-prison-cca-corecivic
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This is so important and, in the big picture, is closely related to public education in that neither should be for profit. I have observed many times to friends that the two most important American public policy books published in the past 20-30 years are Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” and “Reign of Error.” How we treat prisoners and students–how we should not profit off of them–will determine what kind of society we will be. Also, didn’t know that CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) had changed their name to CoreCivic. Talk about Orwellian. Right up there with alt-right–fascism.
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I agree. We should not seek to profit from other people’s misery or opportunity. Education works better in a collaborative rather than competitive environment. We really have to do something to control the profiteering in healthcare and Big Pharma, which has become so obscenely greedy.
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If you recall, the Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons conducted a study last fall and concluded that for-profit prisons should be phased out because they were not offering prisoners appropriate education and remediation programs to prepare them for life outside prison and because they were less safe than prisons run by the Bureau.
Immediately after the elections, stock prices for the for-profit prison corporations soared.
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Also, the not-so-hidden part of for-profit prisons is that they have a direct stake in maintaining and even increasing the prison population and, therefore, in NOT supporting education at any level–insofar as it increases the potential for students to grasp, contribute to, take ownership of, and be responsible to the culture they live in. In other words, to avoid becoming criminal regardless of their background.
As for-profit, and like with education, even where well-meaning policy and people are involved, it’s not long before the profit margins and bottom-line mentality come into conflict with and begin to take precedence over humanitarian, cultural, and corrective movements within the prison system–from hiring less expensive staff to in-prison educational programs, to, well, everything that costs money. And then there is the potential greedy practices involved when the overseers of the prisons also become the paid suppliers. And on it goes.
But Diane is right–the change took place a few months before the election.
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The same can be said for charters seeking ever expanding “markets” with an ever lowering bottom line.
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What can anyone say? The New Yorker has an article this morning where they refer to Exxon’s Rex Tillerson as:a “corporate oil sovereign.”
I think the “sovereign” characterization is a correct portrayal. I think it refers to a kind of “hovering above” the world and anyone not in their ilk–an attitude that pervades people like those who run Exon and Wells Fargo (<–their recent ad campaign is almost funny in their assumption that anyone with a brain is really going to believe them). They’ve all forgotten not only others, but themselves. The word is arrogance. The “masters of the world” idea is coming true, at least in their minds. It seems the United States and other countries are, to them, great big pies that they are trying to either get the biggest slice from or completely take over. Sovereigns in The United States of Business Enterprises.
In the short run, but also in the long run, I wonder what they wish for (besides not to die) and what would happen if they got it, even if they could.
In the meantime, Kudos to the Portland City Council and those reporters who stay on these people like blue on sky.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/rex-tillerson-from-a-corporate-oil-sovereign-to-the-state-department?mbid=nl_161212_Daily&CNDID=30445349&spMailingID=10036475&spUserID=MTMzMTgzMTAzMzI5S0&spJobID=1061088051&spReportId=MTA2MTA4ODA1MQS2
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“Private prison companies are licking their lips after Donald Trump’s victory.”
Are you kidding me??? Like Hillary wasn’t neck-deep in private prison cronies? Not to mention the banks that financed them???
There are none so blind….
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Dienne,
You are wrong. Hillary promised repeatedly on the campaign trail to close for-profit prisons, following the recommendation of the Justice Department. And she pledged to end federal support for for-profit charter schools. Not only was that in the Democratic platform, but I got that commitment personally from her education advisor, Ann O’Leary in a private meeting.
Stop with the Hillary hatred. She will not be president. Donald Trump will be soon. He is the issue now. Focus on what lies before us. For-profit privatization will flourish in every sphere of government and Russia will be our new best friend. We will twiddle our thumbs when they retake Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as they retook Crimea. NATO will fall apart. Everyone will get vouchers and charters.
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Dienne, there’s nothing in the article you posted that supports your conclusion. This is a ceo whose bluster is all about placating investors. There’s nothing in it to blame Hillary Clinton about anything. I was with you until early August, although my disdain for the Clintons was based on policy issues dating back to the disastrous health care reform process of 1993-4. Reading the large numbers of comments on this blog caused me to change my mind. I was proud to have voted for Hillary Clinton and was prepared to be very vocal in opposition to policies her administration might propose if I disagreed with them. Hating Hillary Clinton is no longer a valid position to take if one truly cares about the future of this nation.
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The push back should’ve come during the Democrat’s primaries. Among the many things I supported Bernie Sanders for, he was up front about his hostility towards the morally repulsive private prison system. I am convinced if the teacher’s unions and the DNC weren’t so corrupt Sanders may have won the primary and handily beat Trump. On a postive note however, Trump’s presidency may be such a disaster for the 99% that society at large may finally begin to realize the damage done to the average citizen by the monied interests and their neo-liberal policies. Here’s hoping for 2018.
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Sometimes, it takes poison to cure poison. People must realize that their consumption in a mass is the most powerful force to rectify or to influence the greedy force from those authorities and leaders who are hunger for profits.(=fame and fortune)
In short, I hope that all educators and parents will take Dr. Ravitch’s advice which expresses in:
“We need to be innovative in the Trump era, but even more importantly, we need to work together.”
Also, people need to organize and to make some movements like in:
[start paragraph]
“The Portland City Council is currently considering a plan to stop borrowing money from banks like Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase that do business with private prison companies. Nationally, the #ForgoWells campaign is urging cities to cut ties with Wells Fargo because of the recent scandal and the bank’s involvement in the private prison industry and the Dakota Access Pipeline.
[end paragraph]
Back2basic
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WHEN does Wells Fargo stop? I just heard (no, not on fake news–it was actually “NBC Nightly”) that now it has been discovered that Wells Fargo has been setting up customers w/Prudential Insurance policies…again, w/o their knowledge &, of course, no permission to do so. IMO, Wells Fargo has shown itself to be the most corrupt and criminal enterprise of the banking industry. Stumpf resigns–w/a whole lot of money–but 5,000+ “lower level” employees–forced to do his & other execs’ bidding–lose THEIR jobs.
Sen. Warren, please continue to bring the corporate scum of Wells Fargo before the Senate…& prosecute them, putting THEM in the very jails from which they are profiting.
Now THAT would be justice!
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