The New York Times, March 6th, 2019: JPMorgan Chase stops funding private prison companies, and immigration activists applaud
Immigrant rights advocates and organizers protesting the Trump administration’s policies celebrated a victory this week after JPMorgan Chase & Company said it would no longer finance private operators of prisons and detention centers.
As the administration has stepped up efforts to detain undocumented migrants, privately run prisons have become the government’s default detention centers for them, despite reports questioning the facilities’ safety. In addition to securing lucrative government contracts, these private companies have also borrowed money from large banks.
A spokesman for JPMorgan Chase & Company, Andrew Gray, said on Tuesday the company had “a robust and well established process to evaluate the sectors that we serve.”
“As part of this process,” he said, “we will no longer bank the private prison industry.”
Mr. Gray did not immediately respond to a question about whether the decision was related to public pressure.
