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Statement

The Families Belong Together Corporate Accountability Committee Applauds Bank of America’s Decision to Exit The Private Prison Industry

June 26, 2019
Immigration

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Today, Bank of America ​announced​ it will stop lending to the private prison industry, joining JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo in stepping away from banking private prisons. In response, the Families Belong Together Corporate Accountability Committee released the following statement:

“Today’s announcement by Bank of America to stop lending to the private prison industry and immigrant detention companies is an enormous victory for the millions of people and more than 100 organizations who have raised their voices, signed petitions, and protested at bank branches across the country to demand an end to financing the morally bankrupt private prison industry. We applaud Bank of America for this decision as we commit to holding them accountable, and we will also ramp up the pressure on other big banks like SunTrust to exit the private prison industry.  

“The private prison industry detains over 70 percent of immigrants in ICE custody and is profiting from mass incarceration and the criminalization of immigration. Private prisons have documented histories of human rights abuses, and since ICE’s creation in 2003, immigrant detention centers, overall, have reported 188 detainee deaths. CoreCivic and GEO Group — the country’s two largest private prison companies — depend on debt financing from banks, including Bank of America, to conduct their day-to-day business operations, finance new facilities, and acquire smaller companies.  

“With such harrowing statistics, we cannot accept anything less than an end to financing an industry profiting off the pain and suffering of children and families.”   

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The Families Belong Together Corporate Accountability Committee, made up of more than 100 organizations, calls on banks to immediately stop their financial support for GEO Group and CoreCivic, private prisons that are profiting from mass incarceration and the criminalization of immigration. Partnering organizations include the following:  

Action NC

Candide Group / Real Money Moves

Center for Popular Democracy

CMSM

CREDO

Daily Kos 

Families  Belong  Together

Global  Exchange

Hand  in  Hand:  The  Domestic  Employers  Network

ICCR

In  the  Public  Interest

La  Colectiva  de  Mujeres

LittleSis

Make  the  Road  New  York

Make  the  Road  New  Jersey

Mujeres  Unidas  y  Activas

MoveOn

MomsRising  /  MamásConPoder

National  Domestic  Workers  Alliance

Presente.org

Rainforest  Action  Network

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.