Dear President Theobald,

Last year, Temple University Professors Simon Hakim and Erwin Blackstone released a study praising private prisons without revealing a major conflict of interest — the study itself was funded by the country's largest private prison companies, CCA, GEO Group, and MTC. The professors' failure to properly report their funding source violated two of the university's policies, according to an ethics complaint that has been pending for the past year with no substantial action by Temple.

The study's funding source significantly influenced the research, which is disturbingly inaccurate and in favor of the private prison industry. According to a recent analysis of Hakim and Blackstone's work, their study failed to take into account a number of key factors influencing the cost and safety of private prisons. It is exactly these types of inaccuracies that private prisons leverage to foster a false sense of credibility among state officials that provide them with license to continue exploiting Black communities for profit. Despite the Temple study's claims, private prisons increase state costs and are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses of the past 30 years.

As the President of an institution of higher learning, you should ensure that Temple place ethical research standards and methodologies over corporate interests. Please thoroughly and immediately investigate the pending ethics complaint, hold Professors Hakim and Blackstone accountable if they are found to have committed misconduct, and establish a new policy to ensure full disclosure of corporate funding at all stages of research publication, including working papers and editorials written by Temple staff.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]