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Private prison companies and bail bond companies only make more money if more Americans are incarcerated or in the criminal court system. As the land of the free, it doesn't make sense to invest our money in companies that only profit when more people are imprisoned.

Private Prison Companies Lobby To Get Laws Passed To Incarcerate More Americans

These corporations stand to make more money when more people are sentenced to prison, so they work hard to influence policy and push for harsher sentencing laws. A report from the Justice Policy Institute details how prison corporations use lobbyists, campaign contributions, and relationships with policymakers to further their own political agenda. For instance, Corecivic, the largest private prison company in the US, has spent $17.4 million on lobbying expenditures in the last 10 years and $1.9 million on political contributions between 2003 and 2012. In 2013, the CCA and another major prison company, the GEO Group, also funded lobbying efforts to stop immigration reform, killing the path to legal status for over 11 million undocumented people in order to keep undocumented immigrants flowing into their facilities, as well as securing increased congressional funding to incarcerate those same people in for-profit prisons. (source) 

Private Prisons Use Modern Slavery To Increase Profit

People of color are disproportionately affected by for-profit prison’s modern slavery model of forcing prisoners to work for less than the company would pay staff. If the prisoners don't like it, they can receive solitary confinement and lose visitation privileges.

Inmates Serve More Time If Sent To A Private Prison

Prisoners in private prisons serve 4% to 7% longer than inmates serving similar sentences in public prisons partly because inmates in private prisons are 15% more likely to get an infraction. And it’s those violations that a parole board looks at when deciding whether to release an inmate early based on good behavior. (source)

You Might Be Investing Your Retirement Savings In Private Prisons

Many people invest their savings in mutual funds or index funds. One of the largest and most respected companies for these funds is The Vanguard Group. Vanguard controls over $5 Trillion in investments. They need to put their money in many places to get a return for your retirement savings. One area they invest in is Real Estate with their "Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund." This seems fine until you find out that The Geo Group and Corecivic are considered real estate companies and they control 75% of the private prison industry. 

Vanguard also invests in insurance companies like Assurant and Fairfax Financial Holdings, which seems fine until you learn that they underwrite bail bonds. These companies profit when more people are arrested and out on bail.

Currently, Vanguard invests around $1.4 BILLION into private prisons and bail bond companies. We need to ask Vanguard to stop investing in mass incarceration.

By moving your money out of funds that include CoreCivic and Geo Group, you’re telling Vanguard and other providers that these funds don’t work for their customers. Money really is power, and the less money CoreCivic and Geo Group have, the less influence they have. (source)

As the largest and most respected institutional investment group, Vanguard can lead the way in taking the profit out of for-profit prisons. 

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The below funds currently invest in private prisons and bail companies through CoreCivic Inc., GEO Group Inc., Fairfax Financial Holdings, and RLI Corp.

Vanguard Balanced Index Fund
Vanguard Developed Markets Index Fund
Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Fund
Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund
Vanguard ESG International Stock Fund
Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock Fund
Vanguard Explorer Fund
Vanguard Extended Market Fund
Vanguard Extended Market Index Fund
Vanguard Financials Fund
Vanguard Financials Index Fund
Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Fund
Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Index Fund
Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets Fund
Vanguard Global Equity Fund
Vanguard Growth and Income Fund
Vanguard High Dividend Yield Fund
Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund
Vanguard Institutional Total Stock Market Index Fund
Vanguard Market Neutral Fund
Vanguard Real Estate Fund
Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund
Vanguard Russell 2000 Fund
Vanguard Russell 2000 Growth Fund
Vanguard Russell 2000 Growth Index Fund
Vanguard Russell 2000 Index Fund
Vanguard Russell 2000 Value Fund
Vanguard Russell 2000 Value Index Fund
Vanguard Russell 3000 Fund
Vanguard Russell 3000 Index Fund
Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 Fund
Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth Fund
Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth Index Fund
Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 Index Fund
Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value Fund
Vanguard S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value Index Fund
Vanguard Small-Cap Fund
Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund
Vanguard Small-Cap Value Fund
Vanguard Small-Cap Value Index Fund
Vanguard Strategic Equity Fund
Vanguard Strategic Small-Cap Equity Fund
Vanguard Total International Stock Fund
Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund
Vanguard Total Stock Market Fund
Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund
Vanguard Total World Stock Fund
Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund
Vanguard U.S. Value Fund