Columbia University has divested from private prison companies, after students protested and accused the companies of corruption. CNN reports that they are the first U.S. university to do so.
The school sold its 220,000 shares in private security firm G4S, as well as its its shares in the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the country’s largest private prison company.
“This action occurs within the larger, ongoing discussion of the issue of mass incarceration that concerns citizens from across the ideological spectrum,” the school told CNN in a statement. “The decision follows … thoughtful analysis and deliberation by our faculty, students, and alumni.”
Students at other universities are waging similar campaigns.
Law professor Jeff Gordon, who chairs a Columbia University advisory subcommittee, told the Huffington Post they are also debating whether the school should divest from fossil fuel companies.
Students first began protesting the companies in 2014.
“The private prison model is hinged on maximizing incarceration to generate profit,” one student told CNN. “They’re incentivized by convicting, sentencing, and keeping people in prison for longer and longer times.”
The ACLU has repeatedly criticized CCA, and sued one facility in Idaho in 2010, charging officials with facilitating “a prison culture that relies on the degradation, humiliation and subjugation of prisoners.”
