In New York City, an annual real estate conference faced protest Tuesday over the attendance of private prison companies. GEO Group and CoreCivic converted in 2013 to real estate investment trusts, or REITs, to avoid paying corporate taxes. The Republican tax plan also offers a 25 percent tax cut on investments in prisons. This is Daniel Carrillo with Enlace.
Daniel Carrillo: “There is a correlation between this lobby and the increase in arrests and criminalization and detention and incarceration. And we want to break that cycle.”
Meanwhile, also in New York City, a growing number of residents and community groups are calling on the city of New York to create its own public bank to divest from Wall Street banks that are financing fossil fuel extraction and private prison companies.