{"id":1694,"date":"2011-07-31T12:12:47","date_gmt":"2011-07-31T16:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/cca-and-the-geo-group-have-been-accused-of-human-rights-abuses-united-methodist-church.html"},"modified":"2011-07-31T12:12:47","modified_gmt":"2011-07-31T16:12:47","slug":"cca-and-the-geo-group-have-been-accused-of-human-rights-abuses-united-methodist-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/cca-and-the-geo-group-have-been-accused-of-human-rights-abuses-united-methodist-church.html","title":{"rendered":"CCA and The GEO Group have been accused of human rights abuses —United Methodist Church"},"content":{"rendered":"Methodists lobby private prison companies CCA and GEO\nas shareholders about human rights issues.\nSeems like this doesn’t help with the 2008 United Methodist Church\nResolution 3281, Welcoming the Migrant to the US, which advocated the\n“elimination of privately-operated detention centers,”\nbut at least they’re doing something.\nI expect what they’ll accomplish by such lobbying is to demonstrate\nthat private prison companies have no intention of addressing\nhuman rights issues, because that would cut into their profits.\n

\nPublished by General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church July 2011,\n\nFaith-Based Investors Take a Closer Look at Private Prisons<\/a>,\n

\nIn 2011, members of the United Methodist Interagency Task Force on\nImmigration approached the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits\n\n<\/a>\n(General Board) with concerns about two private prison companies in\nthe General Board\u2019s investment portfolio: Corrections Corporation of\nAmerica (CCA) and The GEO Group, Inc. The United Methodist Interagency\nTask Force on Immigration was created following the General Conference\nof 2004. Membership includes representatives from the General Board of\nGlobal Ministries (GBGM), the General Commission on Religion and Race,\nthe General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), Methodists Associated to\nRepresent the Cause of Hispanic Americans (MARCHA) and two bishops. In\naddition, GBCS has shared its concern that CCA and The GEO Group have\nbeen accused of human rights abuses of young people, immigrants and\npeople of color.\n

\nCCA and The GEO Group are the two largest private prison companies in the\nU.S., operating and\/or owning, respectively, 111 and 118 correctional,\ndetention and\/or residential treatment facilities. In 2010, CCA earned\nnearly $1.7 billion; The GEO Group, $1.3 billion.\n

\nInvestor Engagement with Private Prisons\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\n

\nFaith-based investors belonging to the Interfaith Center on Corporate\nResponsibility (ICCR) filed shareholder resolutions at both companies\nduring the 2011 proxy season. These resolutions called upon each company\nto review its human rights policies and to \u201cadopt and implement\nadditional policies\u201d where necessary. Both companies agreed to meet\nwith investors on human rights issues, so investors withdrew their\nresolutions. The General Board has alerted CCA and The GEO Group that\nit will be joining these human rights discussions. In addition, the\nGeneral Board toured a CCA-operated facility in Marion County, Indiana,\nin late July. Arrangements to tour a GEO Group facility still are pending.\n

\nThe General Board will use these traditional shareholder advocacy efforts\nto bring the concerns of the Church to both companies.\n<\/blockquote>\nIt is\n\nCCA that wants to build a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia,<\/a>\naided and abetted by the\n\nValdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA).<\/a>\nWe don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.\nSpend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education.\n

\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Methodists lobby private prison companies CCA and GEO as shareholders about human rights issues. Seems like this doesn’t help with the 2008 United Methodist Church Resolution 3281, Welcoming the Migrant to the US, which advocated the “elimination of privately-operated detention centers,” but at least they’re doing something. I expect what they’ll accomplish by such lobbying […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,1113,40,2,19,1381,72,20,1908,178],"tags":[1554,8817,4015,8701,2827,8830,8730,2696,7,3919,1297,8846,8749],"class_list":["post-1694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-cca","category-community","category-government","category-history","category-immigration","category-incarceration","category-law","category-religion","category-vlcia","tag-abuse","tag-cca","tag-church","tag-georgia","tag-human-rights","tag-immigration","tag-incarceration","tag-injustice","tag-lowndes-county","tag-methodist","tag-private-prison","tag-religion","tag-vlcia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-rk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}