WHEREAS:

AFSCME International has formally opposed the private prison industry in resolutions in the past; and

WHEREAS:

Today, the national crime rate is about half of what it was at its height in 1991, violent crime has fallen by 51 percent since 1991, property crime by 43 percent, and in 2013 the violent crime rate was the lowest since 1970; and

WHEREAS:

The U.S. has the highest number of people in prison out of every country in the world, with more than 20 percent of the world’s prison population but only 5 percent of the overall population; and

WHEREAS:

Companies such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corporation), the two largest private prison companies in the United States, continue profiting from the separations of families, violations of human rights, and the general pain caused by these prisons is inhumane and unacceptable; and

WHEREAS:

Companies that operate private prisons such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), GEO Group, and Management and Training Corp. have spent at least $45 million combined on campaign donations and lobbyists at the state and federal level in the last decade; and

WHEREAS:

CCA, the leading private prison company, has long provided major support to, and had close ties with, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization of state legislators that has advocated harsh sentencing and detention laws, such as mandatory minimum sentencing statutes; and

WHEREAS:

Private prisons can impose costs on local communities by obtaining subsidies, enjoying property tax exemptions, and receiving municipal services (such as water and sewer services) that cost taxpayer money; and

WHEREAS:

Wells Fargo and 28 other major financial institutions, dubbed the Million Shares Club, hold over one million shares in CCA and GEO Group combined, as well as providing loans and sharing lobbyists with these prison corporations; and

WHEREAS:

In order to maintain a profitable industry, private prisons cut corners with indisputably devastating results, private prisons routinely experience more inmate escapes and higher rates of violence due to chronically lax security and poorly trained, minimally paid staff; and

WHEREAS:

Private prisons profit from incarceration (an average of $78.88 per inmate per day) and use their political influence to lobby for harsher penalties and anti­immigrant legislation like Arizona’s SB 1070; and

WHEREAS:

In 2015, 62 percent of all Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immigration detention beds in the United States were operated by for-profit prison corporations, up from 49 percent in 2009, and nine of the ten largest ICE detention centers are private at a rate of $122 per inmate per day; and

WHEREAS:

The Bureau of Justice Assistance reported that private prisons experienced 49 percent more assaults on staff and 65 percent more inmate­to­inmate assaults than public prisons.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

That AFSCME submit a recommendation from the membership at our 42nd International Convention to our representatives on our respective pension boards, committees, plan managers, retirement systems and/or associations on public pension boards across the U.S. to divest from

private prisons, and instead explore investing in low carbon technologies, co­op development funds and community investment funds; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME introduce this idea to other public employee unions to pressure these pension boards to leave the private prison industry in favor of building a more just and sustainable tomorrow; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:

That we call on all our representatives on our respective pension boards, committees, plan managers, retirement systems, and/or associations on public pension boards and like­minded supporters in other public employee unions to rethink our strategy of investing in these private prison corporations.

SUBMITTED BY: Jason Heilbrun, President and Delegate

Korie Erickson, Secretary and Delegate

AFSCME Local 88, Council 75

Oregon