Prison Divestment Campaign Causes CCA and GEO Stock to Plummet
Prison Divestment Campaign Causes CCA and GEO Stock to Plummet
Since the divestment campaign began on May 12, 2011. CCA’s stock value dropped from $26.02 to $20.67, a 21% drop at year’s end. Geo Group stock has taken a similar plunge, from a high of $26.12 on May 12 to $16.75 on December 31, 2011, a drop of over 34%.
The campaign has been exposing CCA and Geo as the major financers of Arizona Copycat laws, which has led to more immigrants and people of color being wrongfully imprisoned. These for-profit prisons have a long history of lobbying for laws that increase penalties and incarcerations for immigrants and people of color, supporting controversial bills like the 3 strikes laws and minimum mandatory sentencing that has created massive profits for these corporations and their investors.
The tables are turning, people are finding out the dirty secrets of the for-profit prison industry. No one wants to invest in a corporation that is actively involved in finding new ways of putting humans in cages where they are apt to be sexually molested or otherwise abused for the sole purpose of increasing a profit margin. These corporations run prisons like tenement hotels, they spend millions in lobbying and political contributions to ensure they are filled to the max at taxpayer expense,” said Peter Cervantes-Gautschi Executive Director of Enlace.
The Prison Divestment Campaign has helped convinced major hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management and the United Methodist Church to divest their entire holdings from for-profit prisons. Many individuals have also cancelled their accounts from private prison industry financers, Wells Fargo and Bank of America.
Enlace coordinates the Prison Divestment Campaign which brings together Occupy Wall Street, immigrant rights groups, criminal justice groups and religious organizations to expose for-profit prison companies as the money behind the wave of anti-immigrant laws and policies. Together they represent a growing movement demanding corporate accountability by ensuring people over profit. Major prison investors include Fidelity, Vanguard, General Electric, Scopia, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo.
For more information contact Enlace at info@enlaceintl.org or 213-284-3802.
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