Private Prisons' Stocks Up 74% and 52% Since Election

(Charts via Google Finance)

As you can see from the charts above, the stock prices of the top two private prison corporations have exploded in the two months following the election. The shares of Corecivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America) and the Geo Group increased by 74% and 52% respectively!

“I do think we can do a lot of privatizations and private prisons,” Donald Trump told Chris Matthews during an interview last June. “It seems to work a lot better.” He’s absolutely wrong. Nonetheless, the Trump administration will likely reverse a directive made by the Department of Justice last September in which all private prison contracts would eventually be phased out of the federal system. That announcement by the DOJ came after the Inspector General (IG) of the Department of Justice issued a comprehensive review of the private prisons that house federal prisoners. The IG report concluded that private prisons don’t offer significant savings to the taxpayers and there were more violent incidents in those facilities. That decision by the DOJ was a step in the right direction, but it applies to only a small portion of the prison population; most prisoners are housed in state facilities. On the other hand, private prisons house over half of all illegal immigrants who are held in detention centers.

Trump’s nominee, Jeff Sessions, for Attorney General is a hardliner in practically every category. He’s a proud supporter of stop and frisk programs, the drug war, and civil asset forfeiture. He’s also an advocate for privatizing prisons. In fact, two of his former staffers are working as lobbyists for the GEO Group. That’s particularly important because the Attorney General customarily appoints the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

We need a more moderate choice for the U.S. Attorney General’s Office. We need someone with a better record of human rights. The Attorney General must be someone who will respect states’ rights for legal marijuana, oppose civil asset forfeiture, and phase out private prisons. It’s now time for us to become active in the political process. The hashtags #StopSessions and #JustSayNoToSessions are being used on social media to motivate people to call the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Let’s all get involved and have our voices be heard.