Prison Divestment and Unions: A Growing Movement
2015
New York State United Teachers adopted a resolution to investigate current pension investments in prisons and to move immediately to divest from prisons.
Columbia University became the very first university in the country to divest its endowment from the private prison industry.
2016
Oregon Education Association, representing pre-K to 12th grade teachers, passes a resolution to push for divestment of the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) from prisons and their major investors.
Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department moved to phase the use of private prisons.
2017
President Trump, who received millions of dollars in campaign contributions from private prison companies, reverses plans to end federal prison privatisation.
The City of Seattle divests $3 billion from major prison lender and Dakota Access Pipeline financier, Wells Fargo.
University of California terminates $475 million worth of contracts with Wells Fargo due to their involvement with prison corproations.
New York City’s pension system becomes the first in the nation to fully divest from private prisons, dumping about $48 million worth of stock and bonds from GEO Group, CoreCivic Inc. (CCA) and G4S.
At its 2017 convention, the AFL-CIO adopted Resolution 25 that resolves, “AFL-CIO, its affiliates and state federations promote federal, state and local legislation, policies and practices that end the for-profit pipeline of correctional facilities or services.”
2018
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) voted to divest more than $12 million from GEO Group and CoreCivic.
American Federation of Teachers ended its member benefits mortgage program with Wells Fargo for their support of the gun industry, and issued Part 1 of a follow-up report recommending Wells Fargo for divestment due to their support of the prison industry.
2019
JP Morgan Chase agrees to stop financing the prison industry.
Wells Fargo announces it will also cut ties with the prison industry.
2020
The Ethics board of the Norwegian state oil fund (among the largest in the world) puts G4S on a human rights blacklist, withdrawing tens of millions of dollars in funding. The board cited "“unacceptable risk of the company contributing to systematic human rights violations."