End Tax Breaks for Private Prisons.
Target: U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch and the rest of the Joint Committee on Taxation
Goal: End tax breaks for the private prison industry that makes billions off of imprisoning poor people of color.
Private prison corporations recently received nearly $100 million in tax breaks after one year of tax-exempt status. GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) received Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) status, which means they are considered a company that owns property that produces income. REIT status allows GEO Group and CCA to exploit tax loopholes that generate billions of dollars in untaxed profit through a business model that disproportionately targets low-income Americans and people of color.
Private, for-profit prisons are a billion-dollar per year industry that does not incarcerate offenders for rehabilitative or crime-deterrent purposes. Private prisons make exorbitant profits by placing a value on prisoners and using that money to perpetuate a system that exploits incarcerated individuals for monetary and political gains. Making matters worse, the Joint Committee on Taxation continues to give the private prison industry tax breaks, despite record profits and unethical conduct.
REIT status also helps companies like GEO Group and CCA establishe and cultivate deep relationships with politicians. This further allows private prison lobbyists to influence lawmakers at the local, state, and even federal levels of government. GEO Group and CCA, as well as their associates, have both funneled over $10 million to politicians and have spent $25 million in lobbying efforts since 1989. GEO Group and CCA generate over $3 billion in annual revenue and those totals are increasing, while the incarcerated population within privatized prisons has more than doubled since 2000.
The Joint Committee on Taxation has the power to end GEO Group and CCA’s REIT status and send a message to the rest of the private prison industry that exploiting inmates for profit will not be tolerated in American criminal justice. Sign to demand that the tax breaks for these companies end immediately.
Dear Sen. Hatch and Joint Committee on Taxation Members,
The REIT status enjoyed by private prison companies like GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America allows hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks for these companies whose business model does not show a genuine attempt to rehabilitate offenders or deter future offenders, but instead to exploit the incarcerated in the United States for exorbitant profits.
The aforementioned companies, as well as others in their industry, lobby politicians at all levels of government and manipulate those politicians (and by proxy, manipulate local, state, and federal law) to suit their business needs, which are, like any business, profit-centered. By continuing to allow these companies to receive tax breaks, you are complicit in their flagrantly unethical business practices.
The incarcerated still have rights, one of which is to not be exploited for the capital gain of another without their express consent. Just because someone is in prison does not mean they are a cash-cow for greedy private businesses. It is with this in mind that we urge you to revoke the REIT statuses of GEO Group, Corrections Corporation of America, and any other private prison that enjoys such a status.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: kgbo
1600%. That’s the mind-blowing increase in the number of people
incarcerated in private prisons between 1990 and 2009.
Meanwhile, the two largest private prison companies, GEO Group and Corrections Corp of America (CCA), have spent tens of millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions – and it’s paid off. In 2013, GEO and CCA received REIT status, a special tax status meant for real estate investments, which exempts them from paying corporate income tax rates.
In 2015 alone, CCA and GEO avoided paying over $113 million in federal taxes.
The National Prison Divestment Campaign is organizing a week of action to pressure Congressional leaders to revoke REIT status for private prison companies, and they need your voice.
Add your name to their petition and call on Congress to act to end private prison tax breaks!
Private prisons have been linked to detainee deaths, mistreatment, and abuse. They shouldn’t be allowed to earn tax-free profits from incarcerating men, women, and children.
Private prisons spend millions on lobbying and campaign contributions. We can’t compete with their money, but we have thousands of people like you willing to speaking up. Your voice could make the difference in whether they’re allowed to continue to profit tax-free from incarceration.
Join our friends at the National Prison Divestment Campaign and add your name now to call on Congress to revoke private prison companies’ tax-free status. >>
Meanwhile, the two largest private prison companies, GEO Group and Corrections Corp of America (CCA), have spent tens of millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions – and it’s paid off. In 2013, GEO and CCA received REIT status, a special tax status meant for real estate investments, which exempts them from paying corporate income tax rates.
In 2015 alone, CCA and GEO avoided paying over $113 million in federal taxes.
The National Prison Divestment Campaign is organizing a week of action to pressure Congressional leaders to revoke REIT status for private prison companies, and they need your voice.
Add your name to their petition and call on Congress to act to end private prison tax breaks!
Private prisons have been linked to detainee deaths, mistreatment, and abuse. They shouldn’t be allowed to earn tax-free profits from incarcerating men, women, and children.
Private prisons spend millions on lobbying and campaign contributions. We can’t compete with their money, but we have thousands of people like you willing to speaking up. Your voice could make the difference in whether they’re allowed to continue to profit tax-free from incarceration.
Join our friends at the National Prison Divestment Campaign and add your name now to call on Congress to revoke private prison companies’ tax-free status. >>
No Tax Breaks for Private Prisons!
The Joint Committee on Taxation must end tax breaks for private prisons by revoking private prisons’ REIT Status. 
Join the national Prison Divestment Campaign in standing against tax breaks for private prisons and add your name now!
The Joint Committee on Taxation must end tax breaks for private prisons by revoking private prisons’ REIT Status.
In 2013, GEO and CCA received Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) status, which creates a loophole for them and their investors to make billions in profit from incarcerating people of color and immigrants TAX-FREE! In the first year of their REIT status, CCA and GEO received almost $100 million in tax breaks. That $100 million should be reinvested in our communities, not sent to corporate prison CEOs and prison industry shareholders.
The incarceration of immigrants and people of color should not be a for-profit business, and it should not be tax-free.
In 2013, GEO and CCA received Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) status, which creates a loophole for them and their investors to make billions in profit from incarcerating people of color and immigrants TAX-FREE! In the first year of their REIT status, CCA and GEO received almost $100 million in tax breaks. That $100 million should be reinvested in our communities, not sent to corporate prison CEOs and prison industry shareholders.
The incarceration of immigrants and people of color should not be a for-profit business, and it should not be tax-free.
In this classic story that takes place on a road trip throughout the United States, Don Lichterman tells of his experiences at an Indian Reservation, the country's largest music festival and a band's final tour. During his journey all around America, Lichterman talks about his relationships gained and lost along the way debating important issues facing the U.S, such as the upsurge in government spending, the job market, the state of the economy, religion, the criminal justice system/laws, the War on Drugs, the War On Terror, the housing bust, the health care system, private prisons and private jails.
