Color of Change announced this via email last night:
Hillary Clinton has agreed to stop accepting money from private prison lobbyists and to donate the direct contributions received thus far.
It's a big deal — for the past 40 years, private prison companies like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group have spent millions to influence politicians that control criminal justice policy so they can continue to profit off anti-Black mass incarceration.
Clinton's decision to cut ties with private prison lobbyists, after discussions with ColorOfChange and other racial justice activists, is a clear sign that the industry's influence is waning.
[...] When we learned that the Clinton campaign had accepted contributions from private prison lobbyists and bundlers, Black and brown people across the country raised their voices, including our friends at Black Lives Matter, Get Equal, Presente and United We Dream.4 After open and substantive discussions between ColorOfChange and the Clinton campaign, Clinton committed to never taking money directly from private prisons lobbyists moving forward. At a time when companies like GEO Group and CCA exercise unchecked power in our political process, her leadership on this issue is all the more important.
