5 Links Between Higher Education and the Prison Industry

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/5-links-between-higher-education-and-the-prison-industry-20140618


The Alma Mater statue at the Columbia University campus in New York City.

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1. Investing In Private 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. In February 2014 the newly formed student groups Columbia Prison Divest delivered a letter to President Lee Bollinger demanding, among other things, that Columbia divest all its CCA shares and fully disclose its investments in the future (students can only view 10 percent of the university's investments currently).

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2. College Applications

At many of American colleges and universities, children and young adults with criminal records need not apply. A Center for Community Alternatives report found that two thirds of colleges collect criminal justice information from their applicants. Though not all administration officials said such information had weight in the college acceptance decisions, it was more likely to be a decisive factor for private and four-year schools than for public and two-year schools. Such information is most often divulged through the Common Application, where applicants are encouraged to self-report any previous charges. At colleges that have official or informal policies of disclosure, failing to self-report one's criminal record increases the likelihood of denied or rescinded admission.

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3. Boards of Trustees

These days it's hard to swing a chunk of change at an American university without hitting a CCA board member. That's because many of them hold prestigious positions on university Boards of Trustees where they can rub elbows with esteemed academics and advise institutions of higher learning on what to do with their endowments.

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4. Campus Security

The global security service behemoth G4S gets the most ink for operating in Israeli prisons, where its guards have been alleged to abuse the Palestinian prisoners held there. The company's operations extend to prisons in Australia and South Africa. Sometimes their security guards return to the mothership to violently assault protesting shareholders from denouncing G4S's legion human rights violations at their own annual board meeting.



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