After 15 years of working with students, alumni, and other university stakeholders to make endowments a force for social, racial, environmental, and economic justice, REC has decided to close our doors. We are keeping information about Our Work available online for those who would like to reference past campaigns.
Private Prison Divestment
The Prison Divestment campaign calls on universities to divest from the privatized prison industry. The campaign aims to break the political power of private prison companies like GEO Group, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and G4S, which lobby for policies that criminalize and incarcerate immigrants, communities of color, poor people, and working class people. Major victories include prison divestment at Columbia University (June 2015), University of California (December 2015), and California State University Los Angeles (February 2016).
Resources
REC's Prison Divestment Overview
More Relevant Studies and Articles
Banking On Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration by ACLU
Prisoners Of Profit by Chris Kirkham, Huffington Post
Locked Up & Shipped Away: Interstate Prison Transfers and the Private Prison Industry by Holly Kirby, Grassroots Leadership
Criminal: How Lockup Quotas and "Low Crime Taxes" Guarantee Profits for Private Prison Corporations by In the Public Interest
Gaming the System: How the Political Strategies of Private Prison Companies Promote Ineffective Incarceration Policies by Justice Policy Institute
5 Links Between Higher Education and the Private Prison Industry by Hannah K. Gold, Rolling Stone
Agenda from Miami Prison Divestment Youth Retreat, August 15-17 2014.
For more resources, click here.