Mass incarceration is an $80 billion industry and hidden in its shadows are the private equity firms that trade exploitative correctional services corporations and mastermind their predatory practices. These corporations charge the 2.2 million incarcerated people and their families—disproportionately people of color and those living in poverty—as much as $25 for a 15-minute phone call, $9 per day for electronic monitoring, and $20 for a single doctor’s visit. Abuses are rampant and ethics absent.
Here are just a few examples of private equity firms engaged in prison profiteering.
- American Securities owners of Global Tel Link (telecom services)
- Apax Partners owners of Attenti (electronic monitoring services)
- BlueMountain Capital owners of Corizon (healthcare services)
- H.I.G. Capital owners of Wellpath (healthcare services) TKC (maintenance and support services), Trinity Services Group (food services) Keefe Group (commissary services), Access Corrections (money transfer services), and ICSolutions (telecom services)
- Platinum Equity owners of Securus (telecom services)
Pensions, foundations, and endowments are among the largest investors in private equity firms, which means that our taxpayer dollars, philanthropic contributions, and student tuition are all invested in the prison industrial complex. But recent actions have signaled that their time is up! These firms have been put on notice by U.S. legislators, investors, and advocates that investments in the prison industrial complex will no longer be tolerated.
Demand that the institutions your dollars support—whether it be your local government, favorite charity, or alma mater—stop investing with private equity prison profiteers.
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