From Forbes:
All of the publicly known existing banking partners providing lines of credit and term loans to private prison leader GEO Group have now officially committed to ending ties with the private prison and immigrant detention industry. These banks are JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, SunTrust, and Barclays. Fifth Third Bank and PNC have additionally made commitments to stop providing financing to the private prison industry as a whole.
This exodus comes in the wake of demands by grassroots activists — many under the banner of the # FamiliesBelongTogether coalition — shareholders, policymakers, and investors. Major banks supporting the private prisons behind mass incarceration and immigrant detention have now committed to not renew an estimated $2.4B in credit lines and term loans to industry giants GEO Group and CoreCivic once their current facilities expire.
This shift represents an estimated shortfall of 87.4% of all credit and term loans to the industry, which depends on these instruments to finance their day to day operations. Together, these banks commitments — alongside a federal judge’s block on the Trump administration's plans to expand family detention this weekend, new policy initiatives such as California ending all contracts with private prisons, and Democratic primary candidates publicly raising the idea of a federal ban on for-profit incarceration — lead many to speculate a threat to the survival of the private prison industry all together. Continue reading >>>
|
|
|
|
