#prinsoners treated as slaves and work for major #franchises.

#citizenjournalism

Private prison companies make money by cutting costs: less staff, worse medical care, no real rehabilitation. Every dollar they don't spend on people becomes shareholder profit. That's not a bug—it's the business model.

Understaffing leads to violence. Delayed medical care means people die. Solitary confinement gets overused because it's cheaper. And because these companies aren't subject to the same public records laws as government agencies, abuse stays hidden. Families can't get answers. Journalists can't investigate. Lawmakers can't see inside.

I started a petition asking CoreCivic and all for-profit prison companies to cancel their contracts. Public institutions have a legal and ethical duty to prioritize safety and care. Private corporations have a duty to shareholders. Those two things can't exist in the same place.

If this matters to you—if you think human rights should matter more than profit margins—consider signing and sharing. What would you want someone to do if this was your family inside those walls?

We're calling for government action on something most people don't think about until it affects them: private corporations running prisons, detention centers, and foster care systems. When a company's bottom line depends on keeping people locked up or separated from their families, something is fundamentally broken.

I started a petition demanding that federal and state leaders investigate these contracts, hold these institutions accountable, and cut ties where they're failing people. We're talking about:

• Independent investigations into conditions and safety violations
• Immediate contract suspension when institutions repeatedly fail
• Real transparency about where taxpayer money goes
• Protections for whistleblowers and families fighting the system
• A national database tracking violations, deaths, and abuse

The core principle here is simple: Government exists to protect people, not to create profit from human suffering. Incarcerated people still deserve dignity. Detained immigrants shouldn't be business opportunities. Kids in the system shouldn't be financial commodities.

What bothers me most is how hidden this all is. Most of us have no idea which companies are running our prisons or how badly some are failing. If this matters to you too—whether you've been affected directly or you just think it's wrong—consider signing and sharing. If this was your family, what would you want someone to do?

Last week, the US Supreme Court quietly made a big decision.

They unanimously rejected an attempt by GEO Group — one of the largest private prison companies in the US — to block a lawsuit accusing it of forcing immigration detainees to work for as little as $1 a day.

GEO runs detention centers under contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and argued that because it works for the federal government, it shouldn’t even be sued. The courts didn’t buy it. Now, the case can finally move forward after more than a decade.

The lawsuit says detainees were made to clean facilities and do other jobs just to afford basic necessities, like extra food.

What makes this unsettling is the bigger picture:

• Private companies make billions running detention centers

• People inside can’t freely refuse work

• And imagine being paid “$1 a day”? Sounds a lot like coercion to us.

We encourage you to ask yourselves some questions like :

• Should private companies be running detention at all?

• Is work in detention ever truly voluntary?

• Where’s the line between “programs” and forced labor?