As immigration and incarceration issues become central to the 2016 presidential campaign, lobbyists for two major prison companies are serving as top fundraisers for Hillary Clinton.
Corrections Corporation of America and the Geo Group could both see their fortunes turning if there are fewer people to lock up in the future.
Last week, Clinton and other candidates revealed a number of lobbyists who are serving as “bundlers” for their campaigns. Bundlers collect contributions on behalf of a campaign, and are often rewarded with special favors, such as access to the candidate.
Richard Sullivan, of the lobbying firm Capitol Counsel, is a bundler for the Clinton campaign, bringing in $44,859 in contributions in a few short months. Sullivan is also a registered lobbyist for the Geo Group, a company that operates a number of jails, including immigrant detention centers, for profit.
As we reported yesterday, fully five Clinton bundlers work for the lobbying and law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison company in America, paid Akin Gump $240,000 in lobbying fees last year. The firm also serves as a law firm for the prison giant, representing the company in court.
Akin Gump lobbyist and Clinton bundler Brian Popper disclosed that he previously helped CCA defeat efforts to compel private prisons to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests.
Hillary Clinton has a complicated history with incarceration. As first lady, she championed efforts to get tough on crime. “We need more police, we need more and tougher prison sentences for repeat offenders,” Clinton said in 1994. “The ‘three strikes and you’re out’ for violent offenders has to be part of the plan. We need more prisons to keep violent offenders for as long as it takes to keep them off the streets,” she added.
In recent months, Clinton has tacked left in some ways, and now calls for alternatives to incarceration and for greater police accountability. And while Clinton has backed a path to citizenship for undocumented people in America, she recently signaled a willingness to crack down on so-called “sanctuary cities,” a move that could lead to more immigrant detentions.
The future of both criminal justice reform and immigration are critical for private prison firms. The Geo Group, in a disclosure statement for its investors, notes that its business could be “adversely affected by changes in existing criminal or immigration laws, crime rates in jurisdictions in which we operate, the relaxation of criminal or immigration enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction, sentencing or deportation practices, and the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by criminal laws or the loosening of immigration laws.”
Why am I just now hearing about this? It’s received NO coverage from the mainstream media. Not to knock The Intercept… but more folks should be talking about this.
We are living in boom times for the private prison industry. The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest owner of private prisons, has seen its revenue climb by more than 500 percent in the last two decades. And CCA wants to get much, much bigger: Last year, the company made an offer to 48 governors to buy and operate their state-funded prisons. But what made CCA’s pitch to those governors so audacious and shocking was that it included a so-called occupancy requirement, a clause demanding the state keep those newly privatized prisons at least 90 percent full at all times, regardless of whether crime was rising or falling
NO prisons should be “For-Profit” Corporate institutions. Don’t care what the arguments are, about how “Privatizing is Better”, blah blah woof woof – it is a wide-open doorway to EVIL – to corruption, abuse, and morally bankrupt treatment of human beings, IN THE NAME OF PROFIT
Hillary Clinton is the Democrat version of Mitt Romney she’ll say ANYTHING to get elected. Just a power hungry D.C. insider–nothing special about her at all. Taking money from the private prison industry while claiming to care about Black Lives? Of course she is! That’s Hillary for ya!
This is a pretty poor excuse for journalism. Lobbyists are lawyers. A large law firm, where all of these attorneys are employed, collectively represent thousands of clients.
When you represent a client, you don’t pledge allegiance to that client. You represent that client in certain matters and that’s it; you don’t become that person’s advocate in all matters for life.
As an attorney, like all attorneys, I represent scores of clients. I’ve represented accused murderers. Does that make me a murder advocate? A friend of murderers? An advocate for murder? Given the way Lee Fang makes intellectual leaps out of innuendo, that would probably be the case.
Well, then Hannah, why doesn’t Hillary simply return the money collected from those private prison owners? If Hillary is suddenly such a voice for the People, then why can’t she see the allegiance must be to the People, and more money to build and support more prisons is not the way to get there? I dare to say that in my opinion, and my observations of her outreach to the community of color, is very likely just more BS, not a real concern for people who are generally at risk of job loss or no way to get a job to begin with. Out of sight, out of mind, and then you don’t really have to make any effort other than with those whom are high profile at any given moment, like BlackLivesMatter leaders. Hillary is no voice for those of us who’ve suffered poverty, a lack of being able to afford a strong formal education, etc. She does not speak for me. She does not speak for most of us. Let’s just get honest about it.
Big deal, Hillary has already sold her soul for $$$$. Next step is to get elected and then really rape the American citizens…
Do you think that this will make me vote Republican? LOL I’m voting for the Democratic candidate that wins the primary and right now it looks like Hillary.
It’s important to note that you can’t control what company you work for or the assignments you are given. It’s like what happened to one of President Obama’s nominees, Debo Adegbile, who was rejected because spent more than a decade working for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where he served as the group’s in-house voting rights expert. The legal defense fund began its work on Abu-Jamal’s behalf well before Adegbile began working for it, however he did contribute to the filing of a 2009 court brief that argued that Abu-Jamal faced a discriminatory jury — an appeal later found to have merit by a judge.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/03/05/senate-rejects-obama-appointment-of-debo-adegbile-to-top-civil-rights-post/
There have been many questionable companies that lawyers and lobbyists work for.
Coca-Cola and The Gap is for marriage equality. Are you going to stop purchasing either one or tell your family to quit their jobs (if they work there)? No. Stop the faux outrage.
Are lobbyists going to disappear? No. Welcome to a capitalist society.
Is Bernie clean? He’s a big gun proponent. The very guns that kill many minorities. I don’t see BLM-Bernie supporters telling him to get tough on gun control or to put his gun down.
So stop the holier than though routine.
I will vote for whichever Democratic candidate wins the primary. The jail cells will explode under any Republican President. Republicans love slavery, the war on drugs, and the war on minorities and women.
You forgot about Rand.
This goes to show how far to the Right that the United States has really swung, especially in more recent years. Here’s hoping that Bernie Sanders makes the primary, so I can vote for him.
Disgusting and downright evil:
“The Geo Group, in a disclosure statement for its investors, notes that its business could be “adversely affected by changes in existing criminal or immigration laws, crime rates in jurisdictions in which we operate, the relaxation of criminal or immigration enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction, sentencing or deportation practices, and the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by criminal laws or the loosening of immigration laws.”
Hillary Clinton will obviously say whatever the heck the highest bidder wishes her to say.. I believe I will not vote this election..
Better idea: Vote Bernie Sanders for President
this confirms she will make the country worse.
locking up people for profit is one of the worst atrocities in this country
Or vote for Hillary if you want to, “feel the urine.”
“I look forward to a day when America is not divided into the 1% who are entitled and the 99% who are disenfranchised from the American dream. I look forward to a day when America is divided into the 1% who voted for me and the 99% who are imprisoned and watched over by the 1% who voted for me.”–H. Clinton
The how much how many innocent people are killed in prison every f****** day here in United States of America you should make a program that helps a criminal not become a criminal and stop calling the criminal a criminal when he’s not a criminal anymore everybody has a right to rectify their mistakes. what to do fundraisers for people that need dental they can’t afford f****** health insurance how about that won’t you have a fundraiser about helping people medically its a lock and unlock is that helping the people know you don’t know how to help the people I was you knew how to do is to torture them and thrown in jail cuz now than people are guilty some actually go to jail that are innocent think about that
There a muff jails idiot stop tax paying dollars on selfish in creul needs .
Hillary should turn down the money. This is contrary to everything the Democratic Party is supposed to stand for.
Hillary Clinton is mostly opposed to everything liberals and progressives have historically stood for, so that’s not too surprising.
Hillary Clinton is nothing more than an Establishment bagwoman whose job is to keep the rich rich, the poor poor, Americans imprisoned, wall st fat and happy, main st squeezed, jobs shipped overseas, international corporate profits up, the Bill Of Rights continually destroyed and our countrys sovereignty handed over to the globalist bureaucrats. She is a criminal and a traitor.
Slavery is alive and well in America. It thrives in prisons. “Geo Group, a company that operates a number of jails, including immigrant detention centers, for profit.” So, let me get this straight, these people are actually indirectly profiting from crime?
More like directly,and the heath care system in prison is terrible also.And why not include Obombacare,as it directly enriches criminals on our blood.The rates are going up,and the leviathans are furthering their hold by combining into a giant conglomerate of stockholding cannibals.
Who had the bright idea in the 80s to privatize medicine anyway?The same duopoly of scumbags as today,I bet.
To privatize medicine?? When was it not private?
Oh no! Money corrupting politics strikes again, trying desperately to keep the prison industrial complex caused by our racist War on Drugs up and running … making money off of human misery by creating a new prisoner slave class is the worst sort of profiteering ~ even worse than what our military industrial complex is doing, as it hits our citizens first and foremost. https://www.facebook.com/bravenewfilms/videos/10152739350437016/
Hillary is running as the conservative.
Bernie is running as the liberal.
The GOP is the entertainment.
What kind of future do you want?
Hillary is a criminal
Bernie is a socialist
The GOP are all sellouts
We dont have a future. Bye Bye America. Its sad to think that Trump is our best chance to keep our country from completely being flushed down the toilet.
What’s wrong with a socialist?
Just got my first robocall from Voters for Hillary Clinton, asking for my support, press 1. Hm. This is California; the primary here is 11 months out; and by the California primary the nomination is usually sewed up. They may want money but next to big players like Achin’ Dump, why bother us? This is irksome.
As for the story, I couldn’t help but think of Hillary doing this number.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoDS1lWdpjw
Hey, it has pay-for-play, incarceration, official favors, and the system of reciprocity.
The list of reasons to never vote for this representative of the Wall Street; War Street; and, Jail Street, “wing” of the Democratic “party” continues to grow. The world needs one US political “peace” party free from such influences.
Great article, and last time I checked the majority owners of CCA were Vanguard Group and BlackRock, and the majority owners of Geo were Vanguard Group and Fidelity.
Now, what are the top four major investment firms which together have the controlling shares in the majority of major corporations in America (and also Europe, I believe)?
BlackRock, Vanguard Group, State Street (owned by BlackRock, but still retains the name) and Fidelity or FMR LLC.
Interesting, huh?
The historical monies in BlackRock would lead one to believe it is controlled by either the Rockefeller family, or else the Rockefeller and Cabot families.
Vanguard controls the Wellington Fund (advisor to the Wellington Fund is the Wellington Management Company, therefore financially interlocked with Vanguard), and since Vanguard is owned by their investors, the original majority investor in the firm which then changed its name to the Wellington Fund was (is?) the British branch of the Rothschild family. (While every random person always claims the Rothschilds own everything, this isn’t the case, but in this instance, it appears a probable.)
Fidelity is controlled by the Johnson family.
Three or four families, mainly Old Money, appear to be running the show?
All factually based input criticizing what I’ve written is welcome.
very interesting, thank you
Typo: “fully five Clinton bunders” should be “fully five Clinton blunders”. Please delete this comment after the typo is corrected.
He really may have meant “bundlers”, which does have a meaning in campaign finance.
Looks like the “blunder” might be your own, I’m afraid.