2016 Prison Divest Week of Action

During our 2015 Week of Engagement, communities across the country explored how we are all tied to the criminal justice and immigration systems, through our lived experience, community ties, or capital ties to our institutions. The goal of the 2016 Week of Action the Prison Divestment Campaign is to reduce the lobbying power of the private prison industry by taking away their tax subsidies. We are pressuring the Joint Committee on Taxation to revoke tax-free REIT status for private prisons. This is a crucial step toward moving our communities out of the criminal justice and immigration enforcement systems.

The Joint Committee on Taxation has the power to revoke Private Prisons’ tax-free REIT Status. Committee Members include Representatives Devin Nunes (CA), Sam Johnson (TX), Kevin Brady (TX), Sander M. Levin (MI), Charles B. Rangel (NY) and Senators Orrin G. Hatch (UT), Chuck Grassley (IA), Mike Crapo (ID), Ron Wyden (OR), and Debbie Stabenow (MI). Sign the petition to revoke REIT status now.

Week of Action activities will raise the profile of the campaign, provide information and encourage community members and organizations to analyze how they have been impacted by these systems, and to imagine where and how we could reinvest in our communities to foster healing and solidarity across class and racial divides.

Current list of events:

4/17 In Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners, launch of new website highlighting injustices perpetrated by G4S in the United States, Palestine, and beyond.
4/17 Arizona, Petition to AZ Chamber of Commerce to Drop CCA from its membership, Puente
4/17-4/21 NYC, campus education forums & protests, CUNY Prison Divest
4/18-4/22 Oberlin, campus education forums, Oberlin Prison Divest
4/18- 4/20 New Jersey, Princeton University has vote for referendum to divest from private prisons, Princeton Private Prison Divest
4/18 New Jersey, Demand Rutgers University Board of Governors To Divest from Private Prisons , Rutgers #PrisonDivest
4/20 Tacoma, Washington, community rally for men with cancer held in immigrant detention
4/20-4/21 D.C., meetings with Congressional staffers to revoke REIT for prisons, Advancement Project and United We Dream
4/20 3:00pm EST Twitter townhall. See the conversation on Storify.
4/21 Portland, Community Canvass and #RevokeREIT rally, Enlace
4/22 New Jersey, Protest GEO Group Halfway House & Campaign Launch, NJ #PrisonDivest
4/25 NYC, Community Canvass and #RevokeREIT rally, Enlace, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Families for Freedom, Responsible Endowments Coalition, Queer Detainee Empowerment Project
Weeklong online petition & education drive to end tax breaks for private prisons tinyurl.com/NoPrisonTaxBreaks

Add your event to the list on our Facebook page or by e-mailing jamie@enlaceintl.org.

Through Prison Divestment, we can influence the root causes of this issue, attacking the profit motive that has seen an explosion in incarceration of Black and brown communities.

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