WELLS FARGO: Invest in Humanity/Dump the Prison Stock!

Today was a national day of action to pressure Wells Fargo to Divest from GEO Group...this was my contribution at their AZ HQ in downtown Phoenix. I also handed out fliers. It took less than an hour to pull off; and anyone can do something like this. The Homeland Security people would probably call me a "lone wolf". That's much better than being a sheep, as far as I'm concerned.



















the bus stop cleaner guy was really cool.
He was extra-careful not to disturb my work.

This is also where Sheriff Joe's office is...
they probably thought he was my target.

this deputy just walked on by like I had good reason to be there.
See why I get confused about the seriousness of my crimes?

National Prison Industry Divestment Campaign

Enlace is working in partnership with organizations across the US on the Prison Industry Divestment Campaign that is targeting major shareholders of the private prisons corporations The GEO Group, Inc. and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) because of their roles in lobbying for anti-immigrant legislation like SB1070.

Anti-immigrant legislation is sweeping the country. Harsh Arizona-style laws are being introduced in more than 20 states.

The private prison industry, including Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the Geo Group (Geo), is the force behind lobbying efforts that increase penalties and incarcerations by the federal government and by states such as Arizona and Georgia. Their current business plans push for harsher immigrant incarceration policies.


Such policies drive up prison populations and put added strains on state and federal budgets. Increasing prison costs cause cuts in funding for education and health care.

A report prepared on March 7, 2011 by the US Department of Homeland Security reveals that 39% of immigrants detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency between October 2010 and February 2011 were categorized as “non-criminal.” Another 22% were charged with infractions deemed less serious than traffic violations. These detentions of harmless people are set to cost taxpayers over $10 billion a year while profiting Manhattan-based hedge fund managers and other finance industry moguls.

The United States has the highest population of prisoners in the world. 2.3 million people are behind bars in the US. Our federal prisons are at 136% capacity. State and local prisons and jails are at 92% capacity. In fact, the United States has only 5% of the world’s population and 23.6% of the world’s prisoners.

The number of crimes committed annually in the US decreased by over 4% over the past 10 years while the number of prisoners has grown more than 19%. During the same period the private prison industry’s share of the prisoner population increased 24%.

A number of court cases have confirmed that children have been abused, women have been raped, and men have died from lack of basic medical attention in facilities run by GEO and CCA.

Both CCA and GEO rely on financing and other assistance from major investors to employ the powerful lobbying efforts in Congress and Federal agencies, as well as lobbying in state capitols across the country. These major investors include Wells Fargo, General Electric, and others.The respected studies on the subject show that privatized prisons do not save taxpayers any money.

What can we do?

First, we must convince shareholders in these two private prison corporations to dump their stock. The major investors in the private prison industry include Wells Fargo Bank, General Electric, Fidelity, and Scopia Management .

Second, many of us are customers of Wells Fargo or General Electric. As customers, we should demand that these two companies stop investing in CCA and GEO.

Third, a great deal of taxpayer money is invested in major shareholders of CCA and GEO stock, such as Wellington Management, BlackRock, Fidelity Management, Lazard Asset Management, Capital Research Global Investors, Vanguard, and Wells Fargo. We can insist that our city councils, county boards of supervisors, school districts, and state governments demand that these finance corporations divest their CCA and GEO holdings or move our tax dollars to investment companies that do not own stock in CCA or GEO.

Fourth, we can tell our pension and retirement funds that we want them to divest completely from CCA and GEO.

Fifth, we can demand that our local, state and federal government stop contracting with CCA, GEO, or other private prison companies and not build more prisons.

Sixth, contact Enlace to learn how you can participate in the campaign.

Sign up to receive Email Alerts about the Campaign

Contact us at 213-284-3802 or info@enlaceintl.org

Visit http://enlaceintl.org/ for more information.

RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=232781060079533

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Below is an email I received about GEO Group today from my friend, Frank Smith, an expert on the private prison industry. His site is a great resource : Private Corrections Working Group



"Because of today's noontime rallies across the country, opposing Wells Fargo's major investment in GEO Group, I thought it might be helpful to get a better idea of how taxpayer money is being spent, thanks to millions in campaign contributions and millions more in lobbying.

I ran these executive compensation numbers in the attached document last night, drawn from SEC filings.

When GEO Group-operated Indiana state prison in New Castle had a riot on April 24, 2007, I found the prison was seriously understaffed and undertrained, with guards making $8 an hour with marginal benefits.

To give you an idea of why prisons that pay so poorly don't save the taxpayers any money, it took substantial state and local law enforcement, correctional and emergency services to deal with the assaults, injuries and fires at the prison. Such intervention is commonplace, around the nation. Often, perhaps usually, the high-turnover, for-profit guards flee at the first sign of trouble.

GEO had a contract with the state of Arizona, but Dora Schriro, head of the Arizona corrections department, had received such disturbing information about the staffing problems that she had halted new exports of inmates to New Castle weeks before the riot.

A much more salient reason that the for-profits don't save money is because of the astronomical sums received by the industry's top executives. I'm attaching a chart showing compensation for GEO's top two last year.

In Kansas, in 2006, GEO Group, desperate to get the state law banning new for-profit prisons repealed, lobbied to pass a "bundled" bill, combining repeal with passage of Jessica's Law. The state's Sentencing Commission determined that the law would necessitate 1,000 additional beds by 2012, and GEO contended that it could provide them with repeal. Then-Senator Derek Schmidt, now Attorney General, called the bundled bill, "a complete package."

In Michigan, GEO expanded their spec prison in hopes of importing immigrant detainees. According to Reuters New Agency on March 10, 2010,

"Prison operator Geo Group Inc (GEO.N) said it is "disappointed" by the Federal Bureau of Prisons' decision to cancel a solicitation for a facility to house illegal aliens convicted of crimes, sending its shares down as much as 8 percent. Geo blamed a funding shortfall for the BOP withdrawing its proposal, which the company expected would fill its Baldwin, Michigan correctional facility. A 1,225-bed expansion of the existing 530-bed facility is scheduled to be completed in 2010."

Desperate to fill its long-empty prison, GEO attempted to get a contract to import California violent offenders such as murderers and rapists to Baldwin. The corporation and the industry contributed to Arnold Schwartzenegger's election and he repaid the support by appointing GEO insider Donna Arduin as his Finance Director. GEO gave him $48,000 a few days after his election to pay down his own loans to his own campaign.

GEO is not the only corporation that seeks to increase inmate population. Last November 11th, in a community meeting in Bangor, Pennsylvania, Wayne Calabrese said that GEO had left the American Legislative Exchange Council because they felt it was inappropriate to belong to an organization dedicated to increasing the prison population in the U.S. GEO's major competitor, the Corrections Corporation of America, has employed chairs of ALEC's criminal justice committee that wrote ever more draconian "model" legislation to be introduced around the nation by its very conservative legislative membership. CCA also was a sponsor of Ballot Proposition Six in California which would have created new "gang" crime laws and substantially increased sentences for vaguely defined gang-related offenses. Such legislation provides a powerful incentive for the innocent to plead guilty in exchange for dropping the prospects of decades-long prison terms. CCA is a major sponsor of ALEC, as is Koch Industries, which has long been in the forefront of prison privatization initiatives.


For GEO and CCA, more prisoners and detainees means more market, and more market share.

Frank Smith
Private prison researcher
Bluff City, KS
620-441-8882

ALEC: The Me Party's Invisible Right Hand.

Sloan does a great job of unpacking the role of the right-wing legislative policy monster ALEC in dominating, criminalizing, and disenfranchising anyone who might resist their brutal agendas. Not surprisingly, that's where a lot of Arizona's legislators get trained to write laws. These are the selfish, fascist, invisible hands choking the heart and soul out of people all over this land. They're raising a whole generation of Nazis who would justify putting us in prison for stopping at the side of the road to help a family needing medical attention if we don't first verify that they have legal status in this country. This is the main source of firepower of the new American Me Party.

For stuff like this, the Daily Kos is a good source.

------------------Daily Kos------------------

Sat Mar 19, 2011 at 10:18 AM EDT
Slave Labor - The "new" Debtor's Prison concept - ALEC and KOCH Industries
DailyKos
by Bob Sloan

Many over the past few months have said more than once, "Next they'll be trying to bring back Debtor's Prisons." Well as I answered then, many states have done just that due to lobbying by financial, investing and loan companies and corporations.

Wednesday's Wall Street Journal had this article titled: "Welcome to Debtors' Prison, 2011 Edition ."

"More than a third of all U.S. states allow borrowers who can't or won't pay to be jailed. Judges have signed off on more than 5,000 such warrants since the start of 2010 in nine counties with a total population of 13.6 million people, according to a tally by The Wall Street Journal of filings in those counties. Nationwide figures aren't known because many courts don't keep track of warrants by alleged offense. In interviews, 20 judges across the nation said the number of borrowers threatened with arrest in their courtrooms has surged since the financial crisis began."

The Federal Trade Commission has become involved in this return to debtor's prisons and when asked to comment on the subject:

"An FTC spokesman declined to comment on whether the inquiry has led to formal investigations by the agency, which oversees the debt-collection industry and enforces a U.S. law that restricts how borrowers can be pursued for debts."


So here we are once again with the government agency representing the people, looking the other way and issuing a series of "no comments" on the matter - as if it will go away on it's own.

As the article says, when an individual is arrested for failure to appear at court hearings about the debt(s) owed, warrants can be issued and the debtor arrested. Any bond that is set for the "charge" is usually in the amount claimed to be owed by the finance company, loan company or bank. Once the "bond" is met by the debtor (in cash) the money is immediately turned over to the claimant and the prisoner/debtor released. This manner of using our courts to collect debts is so inefficient that it clogs the dockets with unnecessary debt cases. Sheriff's also complain it causes needed personnel to be shifted from criminal cases to pursue warrants for owed debts.

All of this not only clogs law enforcement agencies and causes backlogs in the Courts, it also necessitates substantial expenses in court costs, prosecution expenses and manpower costs of issuing and attempting to serve warrants for bad debt. The cost to the taxpayers is enormous. We are paying for the pursuit of collecting bad debts brought into the courts by the corporations. Any of the money collected through the issuance of the "bonds" or settlements going to reimburse the public for the costs involved with the recovery of their money? I would presume the answer there is no. When we consider that anyone arrested and held in jail for any amount of time costs the community for such incarceration, it is easy to see just how insidious this return to laws that were abolished more than a century ago are to not only the debtor, but also to the community that has to pay for prosecuting him/her on behalf of the owner of the debt. This simply represents another way corporations are getting taxpayers to cover the costs of their using our governments for their personal needs and goals.

If it wasn't for the fact that the same financial institutions are responsible for issuing tens of thousands of unsecured loans that brought our economy to it's knees, maybe there would be some amount of sympathy for those holding the debt. As it is I have no sympathy for them. Loans are a gamble - just as investing is - and once you put your chips down, betting on making a profit and lose, there should be public bailout for your actions. Corporations and loan companies know the job is dangerous when they take it. To later want us to help them recover what they lost gambling with our money, is adding insult to injury. How many of them toss us a few bucks when their gambles pay off? NOT!

Since debtor's prisons were outlawed by the federal - and most state systems - in 1833, debts have been considered civil matters to be handled in civil courts. This new trend of using criminal action against debtors is only the first baby step in turning back the clock 175 years. It benefits no one but the corporate interests pushing for this kind of debt system. As the article I linked to above informs, many Republican and/or conservative states are the ones leading the way. Here is a look at some of the model legislation and "resolutions" adopted or passed by ALEC's task forces involving wages and consumer debt:
Business and Entrepreneurship:

Business Ombudsman Act

Standards for Competitive Contracting

Competitive Contracting of Public Services Act

Uniform Photographic Records Act

Council on Efficient Government Act

Prohibition Against Regulation of Nutritional Information Dissemination

Economic Civil Rights Act

Business Exit Interview Act

Licensing and Certification Common Language Act

Resolution in Opposition to a Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Public-Private Fair Competition Act

Electronic Pay Choice Act

Regulatory Flexibility Act

Employment Policy and Regulatory Reforms:

At-Will Employment Act

Living Wage Mandate Preemption Act

Breach of Personal Information Notification Act

Omnibus Common Language Act

Civil Rights Act

Prevailing Wage Repeal Act

Employment Reference Immunity Act

Starting (Minimum) Wage Repeal Act

Full Employment Act

Professional Licensure and Certification Reform Act

Resolutions:

Opposing Any Increase in the Starting Wage

Resolution on Occupational Licensing

Opposing Comparable Worth Legislation

Resolution opposing increases in minimum wage linked to the CPI

Opposing Employer-Paid Health Care Mandates

Urging Congress to Pass Legislation Requiring Expedited Waiver Procedures to States

Opposing Ergonomic Regulations Based on Unsound Science

Resolution Opposing Federal Mandates on Unemployment Insurance

Opposing Federal Regulation to Extend Unemployment Insurance Benefits to New Parents

Resolution on Criminal-Background Checks

Financial Services and Consumer Banking:

Access to Financial Services for Unbanked and Underbanked Consumers

Free Contract in Financing Act

Consumer Banking Act

Loan Originators Voluntary Registration Act

Credit Enhancement Loan Act

Nationwide Interstate Banking Act

Deferred Presentment Services Act

State Power to Regulate Lending Act

Expanded Consumer Choice in Financial Services Act

Title Pledge Act

Resolutions:

Opposing Government-Imposed Caps or Elimination of ATM Fees

Urging Congress to Oppose Measures Designed to Impose Ceilings on Credit Card Rates

Supporting Insurance Commissioners’ Exclusive State Regulatory Authority over Variable Life Insurance and Variable Annuities

Urging Congress to Protect Our Uniform National Credit System

As the foregoing "few" topics and laws proposed by ALEC show us, they are all about deregulation and eliminating all government interference with wages, debts, corporate banking and other fees...issues and subject important to ALEC's corporate membership and donor base. Granted some of the issues presented appear to be beneficial to consumers...but we'll never know because when you click on the subject to expand it and see what ALEC's position is, we are told access to each page is unavailable to non-members.

Take a few minutes and peruse the Task Forces of ALEC here and click on the links to all nine of them. You will not only be disgusted with some of the legislation they are proposing but will also not believe that all of these efforts are ongoing off of everyone's personal and political radars. Multiply what is disclosed today at ALEC's site by the 30 years of influence they have wielded since Reagan was elected President and one begins to understand how we find our country in the state it's in currently.

Want to know what they think about wages, especially "living wage" proposals? Check out this page from ALEC's site that provides:

· “Living Wage” laws, generally enacted as ordinances at the municipal or county levels, set hourly take-home pay above the federally defined poverty level.

· While such action is driven by good intentions, living wage laws are an inefficient and ineffective means of fighting poverty. According to a survey of 336 labor economists, all members of the American Economic Association, 75 percent of respondents said that a living wage would require employers to hire entry-level employees with greater skills and experience than current standards; since labor will cost more, employers will demand more efficiency and production from employees. In addition, only 7 percent of those responding agreed that the living wage is an efficient means of fighting poverty.

· Living Wage laws hurt low-skilled employees, the very group that supporters of the living wage portend to be helping. Even The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a liberal workers’ rights organization, has sued the State of California in an attempt to avoid having to pay its own employees the state’s $4.25 per hour minimum wage. In its legal brief, ACORN said that the more it must pay each worker, the fewer workers it can hire.

· The arguments for the living wage are similar to those in favor of other wage laws. Commonly, the private sector is seen to be untrustworthy in the setting of wages because it is perceived that corporations will take advantage of low-skilled workers by paying them very little. However, in reality—and just like other wage laws—the living wage produces higher, not lower rates of unemployment among impoverished workers.

· Living wage ordinances generally apply to companies that receive government contracts, or subsidies such as those located in an “Enterprise” or “Empowerment” Zone. This means that not only are large corporations affected by these ordinances, but small businesses such as those that lease space from a city or county must also comply.

· Left-leaning organizations actively support the living wage campaign. Because living wage laws have thus far been enacted only on the local level, rather than in state legislatures, these organizations target specific municipalities or counties in an effort to circumvent the legislatures’ resistance to setting exorbitant wage laws that they know will hurt small businesses.

· Unions support the living wage too, but for the wrong reasons. Labor organizations such as AFSME and SEIU support the living wage because in so doing, they can thwart governments’ efforts to privatize public services. As evidenced in recent years, moving jobs out of the government and into the free market economy can have a significant and positive impact on the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of these services. However, such movement into the market also threatens these unions’ hold on the labor pool. Sometimes unions even ask that living wage laws be preempted by union contracts if the union wage is the living wage, so that governments will be bound by union contracts.4

· State legislatures need the power to preempt local governments from enacting their own wage laws. Every state except for Alabama, Idaho, Maine, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and West Virginia have at least one living wage ordinance put in place by municipal governing bodies.5 Without centering the ability to set wages at the state level, local governments will continue to be the targets of unions seeking to maintain full employment of their members while thwarting municipalities’ efforts to assist small businesses, and hindering efforts to more productively provide public services to taxpayers."

Hmmm...they don't much like Unions or others who support living, fair or prevailing wages - especially for public workers. Wonder where they got that philosophy? Let's glance at their Private Enterprises Board:

Koch Industries
Centerpoint360
Energy Future Holdings
Johnson & Johnson
PhRMA
American Bail Coalition
Kraft Foods
GlaxoSmithKline
Coca-Cola Company
AT&T Services, Inc.
Pfizer Inc
Intuit, Inc.
ExxonMobil Corp.
Reynolds American Inc.
Bayer
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

and the list goes on and on.

Now we start to get a better picture of how and why the fair wage and collective bargaining issues have begun to be exploited in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and several other states. We've heard about the funding of Governor Walker of Wisconsin by Koch money. Additional funding for Republican lawmakers there in Wisconsin and the other states. All of that funding to ensure that the states where that money has been spread around, will put forth right to work legislation and implement other laws eliminating collective bargaining and Union-busting.

As my forthcoming books points out, the wage, imprisonment, slave labor and privatization issues are all supported and funded by the same collective cabal of conservative lawmakers, corporations and businesses belonging to ALEC and funded by the Koch-Dealers. Lawmakers are like any other addict person; when it comes to money, power and influence and they're hooked and high on Koch.

In conclusion we know where the money comes from to fund these conservative pursuits for profits and attacks upon labor, unions, wages and now debtors. We know what organization is being used - ALEC - and who their corporate and legislative members are (Debbie Lesko is the rep from Arizona). We also know they frequently use our government agencies, courts and judges in pursuit of their goals...the same governments they want to butt out of corporate business.

ALEC and those such as Charles and David Koch have been able to argue for smaller government while they continue to use it to fulfill their needs. Maybe what they really want is for the government to serve their needs alone and forgo serving America's citizens...Oh, wait...isn't that the battle that's taking place now, all across our Midwest?

The fight's upon us, folks. They have prison labor, foreign labor and now they want our labor at wages they're willing to pay foreigners and prisoners. We join with Unions and fight now or work for less later...

Originally posted by Bob Sloan on Sat Mar 19, 2011 at 10:18 AM EDT.