[imc-rochester] Press Release: UNOCCUPY THE PRISONS: Tell Wells Fargo Dump the Prison Stock - Invest In Humanity

[Ryan David Acuff]

Occupy Wall Street Coming from New York City to Rochester for this event....


Privatized Prisons & Prison Labor is Slavery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt6gPZO8XRw
Immigrants for Sale: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuGE1VxVsYo
Wells Fargo Fact Sheet http://enlaceintl.org/docs/Wells_Fargo_Fact_Sheet.pdf
Shareholder Fact Sheet http://enlaceintl.org/docs/Shareholder_Fact_Sheet.pdf

●•UNOCCUPY THE PRISONS•●

Tell Wells Fargo: Dump the Prison Stock Invest In Humanity



Join Occupy Rochester, Occupy Wall Street Bus Tour, & the Band of Rebels

Tuesday,   Feb 7, 2012,   12:00 pm

Wells Fargo – 1200 Pittsford Victor Rd.

*Need a Ride? Carpool leaves Washington Square Park at 11:45am*



*The protest will feature activists exposing the private prison industry,
survivors of the prison system sharing their testimonials, & our vision for
prioritizing education not incarceration, housing people in homes not
prisons, and creating jobs not jails. Another world is possible. *



Criminalization and imprisonment are big
business<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt6gPZO8XRw&feature=related>.
Our government pays for-profit prison companies an average of $122 per day,
per person in prison. The two largest private prison companies—Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group—lobby for laws that criminalize
communities of color, with the perverse incentive of increasing the prison
population to increase profit. In 2010, they received over $3 billion in
revenue. In solidarity with the National Prison Divestment
Campaign<http://prisondivestment.wordpress.com/about/>we are
confronting the sinister and violent system that makes billions from
locking our loved ones behind bars.



The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with over 2.3
million men and women behind bars and over 7 million in prison, or on
probation or parole. Today, there are more African Americans under
correctional control than there were enslaved in
1850<http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/13/on_eve_of_mlk_day_michelle>.
The war on drugs swept millions of poor people, overwhelmingly poor people
of color, into prisons for nonviolent drug offenses—the same crimes that
occur with equal frequency in middle-class white neighborhoods and on
college campuses, but go largely ignored. Being in the country without
status is a civil, not a criminal, offense. Yet, anti-immigrant laws have
led to the incarceration of over 1 million immigrants in for-profit
detention centers <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuGE1VxVsYo> over the
past 3 years. A FOIA request revealed that on any given day there are 32,300
immigrants in detention, 40% of those are not convicted of a crime, nor
awaiting a criminal
trial<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/immigration-detention_n_1231618.html?ir=Latino%20Voices&ref=latino-voices>.
The immigration-deportation-complex, like the prison-industrial-complex is
tearing our families apart and destroying our communities while
corporations turn a profit.



As the prison industry grows exponentially, so has prison slave labor.
Today, there are close to 1 million inmates working full-time in
prisons<http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/12612/warren_buffet-owned_companys_prison-made_product_may_have_broke_u.s._law/>in
the U.S. some for as little as 23 cents an hour. The NY State Dept of
Corrections takes sick pride in opening a call center in a NY state
prison<http://www.doccs.ny.gov/PressRel/2012/DMVcallcenter/DOCCSDMVcallcenter.htm>that
pays inmates 43 cents an hour “saving” taxpayers $3.5 million
annually.



Wells Fargo, recipient of $43 billion in taxpayer-funded
bailouts<http://enlaceintl.org/docs/Wells_Fargo_Fact_Sheet.pdf>,
has a track record of pushing forward fraudulent foreclosures and acting as
a key funder to the prison industry. Wells Fargo is a major investor in GEO
Group and sponsors politicians and lobbyists who champion policies to
imprison more immigrants in GEO-run detention centers. Wells Fargo made
contributions to Georgia’s HB87 (Arizona Copycat Law) sponsor Senator Bill
Hamrick and several politicians in State House and State Senate who voted
in favor of HB87.



Mass incarceration makes us less safe as funds for social services,
education, housing, jobs, and healthcare are cut while failed criminal
justice policies bankrupt our state and federal budgets. We believe
corporations that make billions of dollars by locking human beings in cages
are morally bankrupt. We demand that Wells Fargo, General Electric, Bank of
America and other investors dump their private prison stock. We demand that
our government stop contracting with private prison companies, stop
building prisons, and end prison slave labor.



CONTACT:           Reyna Ramolete:  reynarh at gmail.com  808-983-9985
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