America: Don't Privatize Prisons

  • by: Susan V
  • recipient: New Hampshire and Florida Legislatures and President Obama

The privatizing of US prisons is throwback to the days of Jim Crow and slavery.

It’s about an industry “that needs misery, long sentences, rounded-up undocumented immigrants and increasing crime to flourish,” says Dina Risor. It's one whose top profiteers, CCA and GEO, don't want states shifting from  over-incarceration to rehabilitation.

That kind of progress cuts into their profits, so CCA and GEO have a backup for meeting quotas - a growing number of immigrants that their $45 million in donations and lobbying have helped to imprison. For them, it's "give us your tired and your poor to exploit."

Enlace, however, has its own plan - one that could end some of the misery. It’s urging large banks and mutual funds to divest from prison companies, and the Methodist Church has already signed on.

But CCA and GEO keep pushing to own more state prisons, and NH and Florida are still considering it.

Tell NH, Florida and all other states: Don't privatize your prisons!

We, the undersigned, are opposed to businesses incarcerating people for profit and see no true benefit coming from this exploitation.

Furthermore, it flies in the face of what America is supposed to stand for - freedom and human rights.

What’s most disturbing is that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Groups are profiting from the misery of countless immigrants and citizens whom their lobbying efforts and donations are putting in prison and often keeping in prison so these companies can meet their profit quotas.

Huffington Post and Associated Press investigations into this system that claims to curb costs, found that, in the long run, they are costing taxpayers more and resulting in serious human rights violations, discrimination and untold misery for victims.

How could any state in a country such as America support a system that revels in incarceration - one that discourages efforts at decriminalizing nonviolent crimes - one that spends millions to influence legislators to support laws that increase incarceration and discourage oversight of their operations?

These prison-for-profit companies prey on small struggling communities, giving them what amounts to bribes to win support of their institutions, rewarding local law enforcement that helps fill their quotas. This local prosperity in such hard times, is of course hard to resist, and therefore many apparently turn a blind eye to the fact that it comes at a high price - that of pain, tears and human life.

Huffington Post quotes Roberto Reveles, a Pinal County immigration reform advocate, who says he "has watched the detention system grow right alongside the heated rhetoric around immigration policy in his home state. The current stalemate over immigration reform has provided a perfect climate for businesses and politicians to thrive -- "a reason for them to have a broken-down immigration system," he says.



"You build a strong image of fear of these Mexican immigrants, which creates a moral justification for imprisoning them, and at the same time brings in lots of money," Reveles says. "The politicians are not motivated to fix the immigration system. On the contrary, they're benefiting from it politically and economically."


It's exactly the kind of rhetoric that supported Jim Crow and kept blacks enslaved in the South for decades after the Civil War ended.

We thank Enlace for what it is doing to change this cruel exploitative system, and we congratulate the Methodist Church for actually acting like all Christian organizations should by diverting funds from these operations.

We ask Florida and New Hampshire to follow their lead and back out of any support or intention to support privatization of their prison systems.


Thank you for your time.








































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Sign Petition
Sign Petition
You have JavaScript disabled. Without it, our site might not function properly.

Privacy Policy

By signing, you accept Care2's Terms of Service.
You can unsub at any time here.

Having problems signing this? Let us know.