The Trumpist policy of kidnapping children at the border has begun to shine a light on the nature of imprisonment in the United States for people who didn’t pay attention before. Over 60% of all detained immigrants are in private prisons. CoreCivic is one of the biggest private prison corporations in the United States. CoreCivic used to be called Corrections Corporation of America but like other companies profiting in human flesh (Blackwater, for one), they felt a need to re-brand. Anyhow several employee retirement funds have money invested in the private prison business. Here is a list of those who invest in CoreCivic as of 2017. Another corporate prison entity deeply involved in the US’s inhumane immigration policy is GEO Group. Like CoreCivic, they have been in the business a while and profit greatly from the immigration policies now being ramped up by the Trumpists.
The current immigration policy is not new. However, the Trump administration’s harsh interpretation of the policy is not only morally objectionable, it is akin to the breaking apart of families that occurred during slavery and the destruction of indigenous families that occurred during the US expansion west. In other words, the current ICE policy of taking children from their parents because their parents were determined to have entered the United States illegally (an arbitrary designation in itself) is a crime against humanity.
When it comes to private prisons,…