STUDENT PROTEST causes Columbia to become 1st U.S. University to Divest From Prisons!

[Shandi]

Similar campaigns are ongoing at other institutions, including Cornell, Brown, U.C. Berkeley, and UCLA.

From article in Positive News.com:

Congratulations to Columbia University student activists in the group, Columbia Prison Divest, who successfully launched a campaign protesting their school's investment in private prisons. Columbia University will sell its roughly 220,000 shares in G4S, the world's largest private security firm, as well as its shares in the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the U.S.

Wilfred Chan
CNN

June 23, 2015

Members of Columbia Prison Divest hold protest signs
at a University Senate meeting on April 2, 2015.

Jo Chiang

Columbia University has become the first college in the United States to divest from private prison companies, following a student activist campaign.

The decision means the Ivy League school -- with boasts a roughly $9 billion endowment -- will sell its roughly 220,000 shares in G4S, the world's largest private security firm, as well its shares in the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the United states.

The campaign began in early 2014 when a small group of Columbia students discovered tuition money was being invested in the two firms, which run prisons and detention centers and militarized borders.
The group, called Columbia Prison Divest, launched protests and meetings with administrators where they argued it was wrong for the elite school to invest in a "racist, violent system."

"The private prison model is hinged on maximizing incarceration to generate profit -- they're incentivized by convicting, sentencing, and keeping people in prison for longer and longer times," Dunni Oduyemi, a 20-year-old organizer, told CNN.

"We don't think about how the privileges and resources students get access to are premised upon violence done to people by virtue of their race, class, or citizenship status."
In an emailed statement, a Columbia spokesperson said the university's trustees had decided to divest from private prison companies and would refrain from investing in such companies again.
"This action occurs within the larger, ongoing discussion of the issue of mass incarceration that concerns citizens from across the ideological spectrum," the statement said. "The decision follows ... thoughtful analysis and deliberation by our faculty, students, and alumni."

The spokesperson would not confirm how much Columbia had invested in the two companies.
In 2007, Farallon, a company managing part of Yale University's endowment, also divested from CCA after a student campaign, though it did not rule out future investment in prison stock.

History of controversy
Oduyemi said activists targeted CCA for its "horrific" human rights record. A 2014 ACLU investigation found abuse and neglect in CCA-run prisons where guards used "extreme isolation arbitrarily and abusively," exposed prisoners to contaminated water, and delayed medical care of inmates, causing "needless suffering."
Student activists also targeted G4S, a British firm, which has supplied a prison in the West Bank and checkpoints in Palestinian territories. Until last year, the firm also had a contract to provide services at U.S. detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay, according to the Financial Times. The firm still maintains patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Continue reading here: https://www.cnn.com/2015/06/23/us/co...prison-divest/

[Tish Rojas]

If the general public knew what a cruel rip-off the prison industrial complex is, there would be a mass closing of prisons. Keeping citizens safe could be greatly improved with just the waste of funds from prisons. Restorative Justice is good for victims and lowers the rate of recitivisum. Length of sentences should be linked to a prisoner's effort to get educated. Prisoners should be required to take Child Development classes. That helps them cure their own background issues as well as making them better citizens. District attorneys should not be promoted by a tally of convictions. Tish Rojas

Similar campaigns are ongoing at other institutions, including Cornell, Brown, U.C. Berkeley, and UCLA.

From article in Positive News.com:

Congratulations to Columbia University student activists in the group, Columbia Prison Divest, who successfully launched a campaign protesting their school's investment in private prisons. Columbia University will sell its roughly 220,000 shares in G4S, the world's largest private security firm, as well as its shares in the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the U.S.

Wilfred Chan
CNN

June 23, 2015

Members of Columbia Prison Divest hold protest signs
at a University Senate meeting on April 2, 2015.

Jo Chiang

Columbia University has become the first college in the United States to divest from private prison companies, following a student activist campaign.

The decision means the Ivy League school -- with boasts a roughly $9 billion endowment -- will sell its roughly 220,000 shares in G4S, the world's largest private security firm, as well its shares in the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the United states.

The campaign began in early 2014 when a small group of Columbia students discovered tuition money was being invested in the two firms, which run prisons and detention centers and militarized borders.
The group, called Columbia Prison Divest, launched protests and meetings with administrators where they argued it was wrong for the elite school to invest in a "racist, violent system."

"The private prison model is hinged on maximizing incarceration to generate profit -- they're incentivized by convicting, sentencing, and keeping people in prison for longer and longer times," Dunni Oduyemi, a 20-year-old organizer, told CNN.

"We don't think about how the privileges and resources students get access to are premised upon violence done to people by virtue of their race, class, or citizenship status."
In an emailed statement, a Columbia spokesperson said the university's trustees had decided to divest from private prison companies and would refrain from investing in such companies again.
"This action occurs within the larger, ongoing discussion of the issue of mass incarceration that concerns citizens from across the ideological spectrum," the statement said. "The decision follows ... thoughtful analysis and deliberation by our faculty, students, and alumni."

The spokesperson would not confirm how much Columbia had invested in the two companies.
In 2007, Farallon, a company managing part of Yale University's endowment, also divested from CCA after a student campaign, though it did not rule out future investment in prison stock.

History of controversy
Oduyemi said activists targeted CCA for its "horrific" human rights record. A 2014 ACLU investigation found abuse and neglect in CCA-run prisons where guards used "extreme isolation arbitrarily and abusively," exposed prisoners to contaminated water, and delayed medical care of inmates, causing "needless suffering."
Student activists also targeted G4S, a British firm, which has supplied a prison in the West Bank and checkpoints in Palestinian territories. Until last year, the firm also had a contract to provide services at U.S. detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay, according to the Financial Times. The firm still maintains patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Continue reading here: https://www.cnn.com/2015/06/23/us/co...prison-divest/

[Shandi]

Tish, You bring up some good points. Unfortunately I don't think that most of the general public really care about this situation. The only ones that care are those who've been incarcerated unjustly, and their families.

I've been a support person to someone who volunteers 5 days a week, in the SR jail with max offenders. I type up their stories, poems and plans to contribute to the community upon re-entry. It's heartbreaking to read their stories, and to know that rehabilitation can be denied to them even when they ask for it. They want help to correct their mistakes, especially with their children and families.

They are released with no ID, even though it's illegal not to have one. They are given no resource guidance, and without a place to go, they often end up with "friends" who urge them back into the "life", and they get recycled back into the system.

Many of us, myself included, could have ended up in prison, for "victimless crimes". Look at those who are serving life sentences for cannabis possession or growing? Recently in Santa Rosa, a family man narrowly escaped a 5-6yr. sentence for a cannabis grow that happened years ago. Only with his wife's diligence, and the community's support, was the sentence reduced to one year.

The prison complex is just one more "brick in the wall" in an attempt to imprison all of us, in one form or another.

If the general public knew what a cruel rip-off the prison industrial complex is, there would be a mass closing of prisons. Keeping citizens safe could be greatly improved with just the waste of funds from prisons. Restorative Justice is good for victims and lowers the rate of recitivisum. Length of sentences should be linked to a prisoner's effort to get educated. Prisoners should be required to take Child Development classes. That helps them cure their own background issues as well as making them better citizens. District attorneys should not be promoted by a tally of convictions. Tish Rojas

[arthunter]

Thank you for shining a light on this problem and for your continued efforts to help those in need ... you are an angel and I only wish that there were more like you who recognize injustice and try to help the victims .....

unfortunately, it's all about money ....

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-pr...f-slavery/8289

Tish, You bring up some good points. Unfortunately I don't think that most of the general public really care about this situation. The only ones that care are those...