Private prison companies

At a recent URBAN-L. A. forum it was pointed out that deportations and detention have fueled the growth of the massive prison industrial complex, and a huge waste of economic resources. Mass detention has generated a billion-dollar industry for private prison companies, including the Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group. Immigration and Customs Continue reading

The wage war for public workers’ union

The reality is, as we know, that the Supreme Court judges that are appointed — are not neutral — and that they are appointed by larger ideological and capital interests. The larger interests now are turning back the many changes that came out of the labor, civil and human rights movements. The recent decision by the Supreme Court, in a 5 -4 decision, ruled that public-sector unions in Illinois cannot collect dues from health care workers who do not want to be part of a union (although they may benefit from the collective bargaining gains that the unions may win for all workers). This decision is part of an ongoing attack to destroy the bargaining power and membership of unions. It has the capacity to advance similar policies that will affect all unions in the future. Only our collective organizing efforts, alongside labor, can ensure that this does not happen.

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Viewpoints: Latinos have paid price for broken criminal justice system

Immigration tops media coverage of Latino concerns for good reason, but California’s search for alternatives to mass incarceration puts Latinos at the center of a decision-making process that cannot be postponed. Latinos have paid disproportionate costs for the dysfunction. They’ll have to play a disproportionate role in any fix. Continue reading

University Investments into Prisons

The clearest link between havens of higher education and private prisons, are direct investments of a university’s endowment in CCA and GEO Group. The most public display of such nefarious investments has been at Columbia University, where in June 2013 a group of students discovered that their university owns 230,432 shares of CCA stock worth $8 million. Continue reading