Big Banks Making Money from Detention of Suspected Illegal Immigrants

joining me again is christopher patrolling is a columnist that nation of change also a p_h_d_ student at u_c_-berkeley and african american studies of great to talk to you as always i want to walk through this fascinating at circle now which we've identified which connects private prisons making money from the detained in the tension of a legal immigrants which we've covered individually on the cell as well as the bank investments in some of these private prison industries which basically leads us through some of the big wall street banks that were built up by the government making money essentially from the detention of over legal immigrants you start where you think makes more sense everywhere well thanks for intent thanks for having me on friday archiving you might make sense to begin by clarifying some of our terms and uh... the the term president industrial complex has become so popular in recent years that in a lot of ways to compare prior bureaucratese former secretary of labor robert rightish determine self has gone from period of obscurity to relative meaninglessness without any intervening period of coherence it's applied so carelessly today but i think it makes sense to be invite find very precisely what we need by prison uh... industrial uh... complex l essentially martin uh... well you know in recent years a lot of attention has been he too eating industrial operations of the president option complex that is uh... b the contract next week the jim a prison labor surprisingly little attention has actually been he too uh... prisoners fine sing and as the backpack where's the financiers investors shareholders who actually holds a significant investments in private prison uh... comments so is actually that i won't even start to talk about prison labor because at present bones about went fine percent along prisoners are uh... contracting five problem generating comments and so we are met by go something like this uh... you know up a private firm a private company alright bonior passes the determines rebate for secret will hire a prisoner very cents an hour uh... to assemble products at the port services that sarah and then of course everywhere he goes v become he'll actually increasing robert parker by packing last n although that's not it was adopted so i'll start and i think it has a lot a lot of cultural traction co in the politics here it will be is actually only act for uh... uh... essentially here's why in the late seventies in nineteen seventy nine others views on weds lasion past fall the global latest pop of the prison industry can transportation act and with the act they simply said was that indian order wishing to carter well convict labour actually needs to be here cowling minimal based and so today the federal minimum beijing is at seven twenty five and so anybody wishing to hire prisoners needs the patient the the cash is that really slot because i've been awful provision that allows state departments of corrections uh... chu did talk about the eighty percent of rose wages that prisoners earn well working problems here really company and right hemisphere denied my next question which is with that the company may be paying to actual minimum wage but what actually goes to the prisoner could be a tiny fraction of that as we often hear these dollar-an-hour fifty cents an hour wages so is it safe to say that if the state then that is keeping that different didi the department is not necessarily the speakers cheating the difference with the state is that had been detained at the decision alternately as to what proportion of wages will will be carnage uh... and has the allstate enough to eat eighty percent of wages bunched are intimately uh... worsen back window family support some of it but if it doesn't stop and see him uh... uh... services or farms and some of the could actually end up in the state department of corrections another differently now now fit into the question uh... specifically so the convened at you know in a lot of ways these companies before proceeding tremendous amounts of money ongoing biz rats all of that that is why i would say uh... of the production of complex you've just while and it's a lot of work to consider the whole bit shareholder display in the essentially format populations of appropriate com okay so in the limited time we have a definitely want to touch on this circle that involves the detention of those suspected to be in the country illegally leading all the way back to the big banks that offer for about that which banks own port mistakes in which private prison companies first of all i think is the question jericho or so so uh... personal are as you to present briefly by stating that last year long uh... chiew around two hundred thousand immigrants were detained in crimea prison facilities that would be privately damaged home operated facilities i mean this is a number of its power white overcrowded percent in the last decade so every time a piece of the anti-immigration legislation is passed by state legislatures i had pork rappers in popular lobby or dispositive we'd like talking with representatives of the department of homeland security these companies that altman has the right now ardent particularly happy return under investment so as it currently stands david uh... bittu largest uh... frighten green companies corrections corporation of america and the g_o_p_ more publicly traded have a number uh... shares owned by the following five largest u_s_ uh... uh... investment banks so very nasty groups and they own about three hundred twenty five thousand dollars uh... where the about stocks but securities in these two companies band in america one point one million uh... at goldman sachs frequently one million jpmorgan chase seven point six million and the mother of the mall wells fargo walking one hundred eighteen billion dollars in these two company's accounts for almost ten percent of geo groups aren't higher uh... are compatible they should try to when i look at these numbers and by the way people can access these numbers on the s_e_c_ website this writing group three hundred twenty five thousand i mean literally a drop in the bucket for with citigroup uh... is doing in the size of citigroup and i would say it would not be realistic to say citigroup has a purpose that interest in the detention of a legal immigrants that being said when you look at jpmorgan chase and increasingly so with wells fargo there's a compelling argument to be made not we can't say that wells fargo is actively interested in passing these laws which will increased attention of a legal immigrants are suspected illegal immigrants but we can clearly find why that motivation would exist that i know i i think that's i think that's true elmo you know i think the the picture looks bleak right now because there are turkeys in june largely great collusion between private prison operators ended that s the banks europe i will say the aren't there there is actually a mover were going to have unenglish concerned citizens have begun to do it man bat all companies isn't worth the investment banker share pres in brantford and property seizing aid your divest immediately i'm so it is within your listeners were interested in in getting involved i'll be handwritten national prison divestment campaigns website prison diaper asthma dot word press uh... dot hogaya again in a lot of ways i think that the directly uh... dot net incompetent basketball profit uh... corrections firms is really the next step inserts tension low of of the president should pop what christopher this is great stuff because we've talked so much on the show over several years about private prisons and about well you know individual instances of a public public person going private vice versa but this really ties it back into how this relates to what's going on on wall street and with investment so this is act absolutely excellent stuff we've been speaking with christopher patrol he's a columnist at nation of change they can read stuff there also a p_h_d_ student at u_c_ berkeley and african american studies great is always to talk to you thank you and i really appreciate ok we'll take a break we'll be back with more after this