To: Jeff Sessions, Attorney General
Tell Jeff Sessions: stop doing private prison companies' bidding!
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, along with President Trump, benefited from hundreds of thousands of dollars in political spending by the private prison industry. Now, they’re resuming the Department of Justice’s use of private prisons, which benefits those companies’ bottom lines -- and that’s not right.
The work of the Department of Justice shouldn’t be for sale to the highest bidder -- if Jeff Sessions wants to prove that’s not the case, he must immediately reinstate the Obama administration’s phase-out of private prisons.
The work of the Department of Justice shouldn’t be for sale to the highest bidder -- if Jeff Sessions wants to prove that’s not the case, he must immediately reinstate the Obama administration’s phase-out of private prisons.
Why is this important?
Americans of all political stripes can agree that our government should make decisions to serve us -- not deep-pocketed special interests. That duty is especially important for the Attorney General, who’s charged with protecting our civil rights and impartially enforcing our laws.
But Attorney General Jeff Sessions has just directed the Department of Justice to reverse its previous decision and continue to use private prisons, which have come under fire from civil rights activists for human rights abuses and a lack of public oversight.
Why? Just follow the money. Throughout his career, Sessions has benefitted from huge sums of political spending by private prison companies. And that industry made massive investments in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign -- one firm, the GEO Group, spent $100,000 to elect Trump through a SuperPAC, then gave $250,000 to his inauguration.
This week, their investments paid off -- private prison stock prices have skyrocketed since Trump’s election, and increased even further since Sessions issued his directive. Sessions is also driving Trump’s promised ramping up of immigration enforcement, which will put even more undocumented people into immigration detention facilities and lining the private prison industry’s pockets even further.
The private prison industry’s interests run directly counter to those of the American people -- majorities of Americans support criminal justice reform, but companies like the Corrections Corporation of America lobby for longer, harsher sentences which deliver huge profits for them.
Private prisons are notorious for cutting corners, human rights abuses, and lack of public accountability. They’re the last industry that our government should be doing special favors for.
Add your name and tell Attorney General Sessions to prove that his Department of Justice isn’t for sale to the highest bidder by reinstating the plan to end its use of private prisons.
But Attorney General Jeff Sessions has just directed the Department of Justice to reverse its previous decision and continue to use private prisons, which have come under fire from civil rights activists for human rights abuses and a lack of public oversight.
Why? Just follow the money. Throughout his career, Sessions has benefitted from huge sums of political spending by private prison companies. And that industry made massive investments in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign -- one firm, the GEO Group, spent $100,000 to elect Trump through a SuperPAC, then gave $250,000 to his inauguration.
This week, their investments paid off -- private prison stock prices have skyrocketed since Trump’s election, and increased even further since Sessions issued his directive. Sessions is also driving Trump’s promised ramping up of immigration enforcement, which will put even more undocumented people into immigration detention facilities and lining the private prison industry’s pockets even further.
The private prison industry’s interests run directly counter to those of the American people -- majorities of Americans support criminal justice reform, but companies like the Corrections Corporation of America lobby for longer, harsher sentences which deliver huge profits for them.
Private prisons are notorious for cutting corners, human rights abuses, and lack of public accountability. They’re the last industry that our government should be doing special favors for.
Add your name and tell Attorney General Sessions to prove that his Department of Justice isn’t for sale to the highest bidder by reinstating the plan to end its use of private prisons.