Dear Citizens Bank, Regions, First Tennessee Bank, Synovus Bank and Pinnacle Bank, and other banks,
The private prison industry is detaining over 70 percent of immigrants in ICE custody and are profiting from the epidemic of mass incarceration that devastates communities of color. [1] Research shows that many private prisons have documented histories of human rights abuses. [2]
Private prison companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group depend on financing from banks like yours to conduct their day-to-day business operations, build new facilities, and acquire smaller companies. [3] A 2019 analysis of GEO Group and CoreCivic’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 2018 filings, show that Citizens Bank, Regions, First Tennessee Bank, Synovus Bank, Pinnacle Bank have had a role in financing one or more of these private prison companies. [4] In doing so, Citizens Bank, Regions, First Tennessee Bank, Synovus Bank, Pinnacle Bank, and other banks are profiting from mass incarceration and the criminalization of immigration. [5,6] We demand that you stop financing private prisons.
Sincerely,
[1] https://immigrantjustice.org/staff/blog/ice-released-its-most-comprehensive-immigration-detention-data-yet, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/us/prisons-immigration-detention.html
[2] https://www.aclu.org/report/shutting-down-profiteers-why-and-how-department-homeland-security-should-stop-using-private, https://populardemocracy.org/sites/default/files/20180427%20CBOH%20Digital.pdf, https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2016/e1606.pdf, https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/06/20/code-red/fatal-consequences-dangerously-substandard-medical-care-immigration, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/profiting-enforcement-role-private-prisons-us-immigration-detention
[3] https://moms.ly/BanksFinancingPrivatePrisons, https://news.littlesis.org/2018/06/21/who-is-profiting-from-incarcerating-immigrant-families/, https://populardemocracy.org/sites/default/files/20180427%20CBOH%20Digital.pdf, https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/wp-content/uploads/ITPI_BanksPrivatePrisonCompanies_Nov2016.pdf
[4] https://moms.ly/BanksFinancingPrivatePrisons
https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/wp-content/uploads/ITPI_BanksPrivatePrisonCompanies_Nov2016.pdf
[5] https://moms.ly/BanksFinancingPrivatePrisons
[6] https://moms.ly/BanksFinancingPrivatePrisons, https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/wp-content/uploads/ITPI_BanksPrivatePrisonCompanies_Nov2016.pdf