#prisondivest

[hello-spookyalpacabanana]

All prisons are racist. Police do not equal safety and prisons do not equal justice. No one is illegal. Police are taught to target black and brown people.

[columbiaprisondivest-blog]

President Bollinger, We Want Action Now!

Dear President Bollinger,

As you are aware, in the last few weeks both the Student Affairs Committee of the University Senate and the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing have voted in favor of recommending private prison divestment to the Board of Trustees. 

It seems we are at the point in this “process” where students and supporters are awaiting the action that our university’s President will take. After we initially met with you in November, we were offered a meeting for a strikingly distant date—Monday April 27th, a strikingly distant date which is now approaching. However, we have yet to receive any further communication or confirmation that this meeting will take place. 

Systems of incarceration and policing around the world are actively tearing apart lives, families and communities by targeting Black, Brown, Native, poor, and undocumented people through profit- and agenda- driven approaches to safety and punishment. Columbia's silence on its continued investment in private prison companies and the effects of its expansion into West Harlem, sends a message condoning that the success of the members of this elite community be achieved through the upholding of and complicity in corrupt systems of criminalization and displacement. When we say this issue is urgent, it is because we do not understand this as an abstract political issue, we understand that for many people this is a matter of day-to-day survival. 

We have raised the issues. We have demonstrated the Columbia community’s consensus in favor of prison divestment and have met few dissenting voices. We have made the case. The time for Columbia to act is now. The student organizers of the Columbia Prison Divest campaign and our supporters are asking you, President Bollinger, to: 1.) release a statement in response to the recent votes recommending prison divestment, 2.) confirm our meeting with you next week, 3.) confirm that a vote on the issue of prison divestment will be on the agenda for the next upcoming Board of Trustees meeting.

We look forward to hearing back from you with the concrete next steps you will take to realize prison divestment at Columbia.

Thank you,

Columbia Prison Divest

[reclaimholyweek]

Drive the Money Changers from the Justice System: #FaithPrisonDivest #ReclaimHolyWeek

The Problem

The private prison industry is a fast growing industry, with companies such as GEO group and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) posting profits of 2.9 billion by the end of 2010. These profits are at the expense of people of color. Private prison corporations, such as GEO Group and CCA, also lobby hard for anti-immigrant legislation, such as seen in Arizona with SB 1070, in Georgia with SB 87, and in the federal government with the 34,000 person immigration detention bed quota. Private prisons are also responsible for neglect and abuse in prisons, and also add to the massive system of mass incarceration that targets black and brown lives today. Such legislation and examples of abuse and neglect directly contradict our moral consensus as people of faith (and as tax payers of the United States of America). 

Additional Reading: "Gaming the System: How the Political Strategies of Private Prison Companies Promote Ineffective Incarceration Policies" JUSTICE POLICY INSTITUTE | JUNE 2011

 The Charge

#FaithPrisonDivest

Jesus so identified with those in prison that he told his followers that to visit someone in prison is to visit him. The prophet, Amos, thundered against the people of God for dehumanizing the poor and vulnerable to the extent that they sold the poor for a pair of sandals. As people of faith, we are called to speak out against making profits from the mistreatment of the poor. We are called to care for the vulnerable in society and not profit from their marginalization. 

On the day after his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Jesus disrupted the profiteering of the poor by driving the money changers from one of the People's most sacred institutions. Therefore, we are launching the #FaithPrisonDivest campaign during Holy Week 2015, to urge our faith communities to pledge to "Drive the Prison Money Changers from My Faith Community." Also, please sign the Petition calling on our our President and our Congress to cease public funding of for-profit private prisons.

According to the Enlace Institute: "The National Private Prison Divestment Campaign targets the investors of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group (GEO), the two largest private prison companies in the United States. Profiting from the separations of families, violations of human rights, and general pain caused by these prisons is inhumane and unacceptable." 

The Pledge

1)  Research your faith community. What body holds the pensions and investments? Who is responsible for making decisions about those investments?

2)  Ask the Chief Financial Officer of your faith community about the list of investments. Even if your faith community is not directly invested with CCA or the Geo Group, check for the top institutional investors of those private prisons. Does the organization have investments with those institutional investors, such as Wells Fargo, General Electric, BlackRock or Vanguard?

3)  Identify other members you can recruit. Identify your allies and opponents. Many faith communities have a variety of ministries. Find which ones will be aligned with your work.

4)  Once you have determined the answers regarding your organization’s investments, begin to organize and connect with other congregations. Use social media, ministries, workshops, and media. 

Download Enlace's Private Prison Divestment Campaign Toolkit. 

The Petition

Faith Community Success Story:

How the United Methodist Church Divested (source: Enlace.Org)

In January 2012, the United Methodist General Board of Pension & Health Benefits (GBPHB) divested from the largest private, for-profit prison entities: Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) and GEO Group. GBPHB also created a new investment screen to prohibit investment in companies that derive more than 10% of revenue from the management and operation of prison facilities.

Petitions for Member Education and Mobilization

Concerned members of the United Methodist Church (UMC) set up a petition, United Methodists Against Unjust Investments, to raise awareness about the UMC's investments and to educate its membership about private prisons.

Learn more about the UMC pension divestment story here.

Anti-Private Prison Resolutions

In July 2012, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) voted to affirm a statement they made in 2003 to oppose private prisons. The Resolution Calling for the Abolishment of Private Prisons also encourages individual Presbyterians and congregations to divest from private prisons.

The United Methodist Divestment Resolution and divestment is a great example of how you can begin to organize in your faith community.

[columbiaprisondivest-blog]

Industry Research Updates

Over our spring break, the three private prison companies we are demanding divestment from continued to demonstrate their commitment to profit over people, their disinterest in transparency, and their investment in the expansion of the prison-industrial complex. Below are updates from the past couple weeks on CCA, the GEO Group, and G4S:

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)

While Idaho state's public records law clearly states that public records remain public, despite who holds the documents (government vendor vs. public agency), an investigation by the Associated Press proves otherwise in the case of private companies the state contracts with, including a contract between the Department of Correction and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). The record requests asked the companies for internal emails involving the contracted work, and all the companies declined to provide the requested documents directly to the AP. Read the full article here: http://www.heraldonline.com/news/politics-government/article15208847.html

Earlier this month, 55 civil rights and criminal justice organizations in Texas urged US Representative Sheila Jackson to reintroduce the Private Prison Information Act, legislation that would extend the Freedom of Information Act to private prison companies. The legislation was introduced by Jackson at the end of last year, and was subsequently avoided. Currently, companies such as GEO Group and the Nashville-based Corrections Corporations of America are not covered by the FOIA, which mandates full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. In 2013, CCA collected more than 584 million dollars from the federal government. Despite heavy lobbying on the part of the Private Prison Industry, organizers argue in their letter that if these corporations continue to draw on public funding, they must be held to the standards of other institutions. Read the full article here: http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2015/03/19/criminal-justice-orgs-want-sunlight-on-private-prisons

The planned closing of a state prison in Windsor, Vermont will mean the exportation of over 100 incarcerated people in Vermont to private prisons operated by the Corrections Corporation of America in Kentucky and Arizona. Vermont’s practice of sending incarcerated people to CCA prisons miles away from their homes has received substantial criticism, as it enforces greater separation between incarcerated people and their families. Read the full article here: http://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2015/03/19/if-a-windsor-prison-closes-more-inmates-will-be-sent-out-of-state

GEO Group

An Op-Ed by Ben Aldana pulls on his personal experience in a privately run federal halfway house in Salt Lake City, currently operated by GEO Group, to speak to the flaws in the halfway house system and America’s criminal justice frameworks at large. He argues that Rep. Jason Chaffetz's Public Safety Enhancement Act of 2013 (HR 2656) will do little to address the abusive, unsustainable, and damaging processes of the halfway house, which prioritized the profitability of recidivism over the welfare of it’s patients. Utah Rep, Chaffetz enhances the involvement of halfway houses such as Aldana’s, without addressing the problems embedded in halfway houses. Chaffetz’s office ignored Aldana, who was met with silence when he attempted to schedule a meeting, and after a year, Aldana was met with apathy by Rep. Chaffetz’s staff, who said not much could be done due to election season. His final paragraph sums up the efforts of the bill and the nature of criminal justice legislation in light of the private prison industry: “HR 2656 has resurfaced as HR 759 in the 114th Congress, introduced by Chaffetz again. There are some minor changes, but unfortunately the bill is largely the same, a seeming giveaway to the private prison industry, and yielding very little benefit to anyone else.” Read the full article here: http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/2307314-155/op-ed-chaffetz-justice-reform-wont-stop

G4S

G4S shares are now over 24% higher than they were a year ago. The company’s senior staff are selling stocks, including the head of PR, Debbie Walker, who sold 20,000 ordinary shares for a sale total of 58,360 euros. Read the full article here: http://www.businessinsider.com/g4s-head-pr-just-made-58360-from-selling-thousands-of-shares-2015-3

[columbiaprisondivest-blog]

About to meet with PrezBo #Strategizing #PrisonDivest

[columbiaprisondivest-blog]

Come by the Law School today for "Deliberate Resistance", an all-day conference on criminal justice policy/practice + its effect on incarcerated LGBTQ people. More details on our Facebook!#Decarcerate #Decriminalize #PrisonDivest

[columbiaprisondivest-blog]

Curious about our campaign? Come to Prison Divestment 101, a teach-in we're holding next Tuesday, November 18th from 8-10pm. More details on our Facebook page #PrisonDivest

[columbiaprisondivest-blog]

@columbiaspec covers our run-in with President Bollinger yesterday, and our march/speak-out following the protest. Check it out #NationalDayofProtestAgainstPoliceBrutality #BlackLivesMatter #NotMySchool #PrisonDivest