Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the biggest private prison company in the country, earned $1.7 billion last year from locking people up. If immigration reform goes badly, they could make even more.
This summer, the House Judiciary Committee passed the SAFE Act (HR 2278), a toxic measure that would transform millions of undocumented immigrants into criminals overnight. No longer a civil violation, not having papers would become a felony punishable by months or years in a US prison. Companies like CCA would reap huge profits off the changes—nearly half of all people in immigration detention are locked in private jails and prisons.
TO DOThere’s still time to stop this destructive legislation. Tell Speaker John Boehner not to bring the SAFE Act to the House floor.
TO WATCHOur latest Prison Profiteers video, produced in partnership with the ACLU and Beyond Bars, sheds light on the role CCA plays in growing our already bloated criminal justice system.
TO READJesse Lava from Beyond Bars and Sarah Solon from the ACLU detail some of the horrifying results of CCA’s profit-hungry policies: prisoner suicides, institutions without running water and draconian laws passed expressly to put even more people behind bars.
