PEOPLE OVER PROFIT MOVEMENT

NATIONAL CALL FOR A STATE OF EMERGENCY

Concerning Private Prisons, Private Detention, and Other People-for-Profit Institutions

Issued by: People Over Profit Movement
Purpose: Protection of human life, constitutional rights, families, public safety, and taxpayer interests

A CALL TO THE PRESIDENT, CONGRESS, GOVERNORS, STATE LEGISLATORS, ATTORNEYS GENERAL, COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, MAYORS, AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEADERS

We call upon leaders throughout the United States to recognize the urgent need for comprehensive governmental action concerning institutions and organizations whose financial interests may depend upon the incarceration, detention, removal, separation, institutionalization, or continued confinement of human beings.

The People Over Profit Movement calls for a State of Emergency response to documented allegations and findings involving private prisons, private detention facilities, juvenile detention, foster-care and child-welfare systems, privately operated institutional programs, and other government-funded systems in which profit or financial incentives may conflict with the safety, dignity, constitutional rights, and best interests of the people being served.

OUR DEMAND

We call upon government leaders to immediately:

Conduct independent investigations of privately operated correctional and detention institutions receiving public funds.
Review every government contract involving private prisons, detention centers, juvenile facilities, and other people-for-profit institutions for compliance with constitutional, civil-rights, safety, medical-care, and contractual requirements.
Protect individuals from retaliation when incarcerated people, detainees, children, families, employees, contractors, or whistleblowers report abuse, neglect, corruption, unsafe conditions, retaliation, or other misconduct.
Preserve evidence and records, including incident reports, medical records, grievances, disciplinary records, surveillance footage, staffing records, contracts, inspection reports, financial records, death records, and use-of-force documentation.
Suspend or terminate contracts where legally justified when an institution demonstrates persistent failures involving safety, constitutional rights, medical care, abuse prevention, transparency, or contractual compliance.
Require complete transparency concerning taxpayer money, including payments to private corporations, subcontractors, executives, vendors, and affiliated organizations.
Establish independent oversight that is not financially dependent upon the institutions being investigated.
Require meaningful family participation in appropriate rehabilitation, reentry, educational, treatment, and accountability programs.
Protect children and families from systems in which financial incentives could improperly influence decisions concerning removal, placement, detention, institutionalization, or continued government custody.
Create a national public database documenting government-funded people-for-profit institutions, contracts, ownership, inspections, substantiated violations, lawsuits, deaths, serious injuries, use-of-force incidents, and corrective actions.
THE PRINCIPLE

Government exists to protect the people—not to create financial incentives around human suffering.

A person does not lose their basic human dignity because they are incarcerated.

A detainee does not lose their constitutional protections because a corporation operates the facility.

A child should never become a financial commodity.

A family should not have to fight a system whose financial incentives may conflict with keeping families safe and together.

A taxpayer should have the right to know exactly where public money is going and whether that money is producing safety, rehabilitation, accountability, and measurable public benefit.

WE CALL FOR A NATIONAL REVIEW

We call upon federal and state authorities to establish a comprehensive review of the people-for-profit model and determine whether government contracts and institutional practices are consistent with:

The United States Constitution;
Federal civil-rights protections;
State constitutional protections;
Federal and state procurement laws;
Public-records and transparency requirements;
Standards governing correctional and detention facilities;
Child-welfare protections;
Juvenile justice protections;
Medical-care obligations;
Disability protections;
Anti-retaliation protections;
Public-safety requirements; and
The fiduciary responsibility of government to taxpayers.
NO RETALIATION

The People Over Profit Movement calls for strong protections for individuals who provide truthful, documented evidence concerning institutional misconduct.

We encourage people to preserve documentation, identify dates and locations, retain copies of official records, document witnesses, and use lawful reporting mechanisms.

Claims should be investigated objectively and supported by evidence. The purpose of this movement is accountability—not false accusation.

TAXPAYER ACCOUNTABILITY

Public money must serve the public.

Government contracts should be evaluated according to measurable outcomes—not merely occupancy, bed counts, detention numbers, or institutional revenue.

Where private operation produces demonstrable public benefit, transparency and independent oversight must remain mandatory.

Where a private institution repeatedly fails to protect people or comply with its legal obligations, government officials must have the courage to intervene.

OUR CALL TO GOVERNMENT LEADERS

We respectfully call upon every appropriate governmental authority to examine whether existing emergency, oversight, procurement, civil-rights, investigative, and contractual powers can immediately be used to protect people affected by these systems.

We further call upon Congress and state legislatures to enact legislation necessary to eliminate financial incentives that place institutional profit above human rights, public safety, rehabilitation, family preservation, and accountability.

PEOPLE OVER PROFIT

This movement is not against responsible businesses.

It is against a system in which human beings can become sources of revenue while accountability becomes secondary to profit.

We believe incarceration should serve justice and public safety—not corporate growth.

We believe detention should protect constitutional rights—not create financial incentives for prolonged confinement.

We believe child welfare should protect children and strengthen families—not create incentives that undermine family preservation.

We believe public institutions must answer to the public.

And we believe every person affected by these systems deserves to be treated as a human being first.

OUR NATIONAL REQUEST

We ask every President, Governor, Senator, Representative, Attorney General, state legislator, county commissioner, mayor, sheriff, corrections official, and other public servant to answer one question:

Will you stand with the people and demand accountability when public institutions and private contractors fail to protect them?

The People Over Profit Movement calls upon Americans to document, organize, testify, petition, investigate, vote, and demand lawful governmental action.

People are not profits.
Families are not profits.
Children are not profits.
Freedom is not a commodity.
Human dignity is not negotiable.

PEOPLE OVER PROFIT.

People Over Profit Movement
A National Call for Accountability, Transparency, Human Rights, and Public Safety