“Elizabeth Warren Says She Would Ban Private Prisons and Detention Facilities as President” screams the headline last month from CNN. Warren commented “Washington works hand in hand with private prison companies, who spend millions on lobbyists, campaign contributions, and revolving-door hires — all to turn our criminal and immigration policies into ones that prioritize making them rich instead of keeping us safe.” When the stocks of companies like CoreCivic and the Geo Group – the two largest operators of private prisons and immigrant detention facilities in the country – dropped following her statements, Warren’s campaign spokeswoman and communications director Kristen Orthman had this to say: “They shouldn’t have a share price because they shouldn’t exist”. Senator Warren also said this: “The government has a basic responsibility to keep the people in its care safe – not to use their punishment as an opportunity for profit”.
Elizabeth Warren has her pension fund money invested in private prison owners CoreCivic and the Geo Group. On her most recent public finance disclosure form filed for the year 2018, filed on May 15 of this year, she indicates that she has between $2.5 million and $8.3 million invested in a series of 13 mutual funds at TIAA-CREF. One of those funds is the CREF Equity Index Account, ticker QCEQRX, which owns $1.9 million each in the stocks of the Geo Group and CoreCivic, the two private prison operators Senator Warren was referring to above.
In total, according to the most recent 13f filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, TIAA CREF owns $8.7 million in the Geo Group and $4.2 million in CoreCivic shares at prices as of March 31, 2019, making the pension fund, which invests money on behalf of teachers across the United States, one of the largest pension investors in the private prison industry. The pension funds and mutual funds owning shares in these companies are likely to say they are in funds meant to mimic the performance of the broader market, or “index” funds in industry parlance, as though that somehow absolves the investors and fund managers of any type of oversight of what types of activity their dollars are funding.
While this report focuses on Senator Warren, it would also likely apply equally to any other teacher or former teacher in politics today, as almost all of them have their pension money invested with TIAA CREF. Many lenders, including JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Suntrust Bank, have all announced in recent weeks that they will no longer lend to the private prison industry. But debt is less than half of the sources of capital that finance this industry. The majority of funding comes in the form of equity, like that provided by Senator Warren’s pension.
Many of you are looking for something to do to affect change. Here’s what you can do:
1. Call or email Senator Warren’s office and say “Senator Warren, you might not be aware that your pension with TIAA CREF is funding the immigrant prisons you hate. Please call them today and tell them to DIVEST from both CoreCivic and the Geo Group in all of their mutual funds. Thanks for your time.” Her office numbers are 617-565-3170 in Boston, 413-788-2690 in Springfield and 202-224-4543 in Washington DC. To email her, go to warren.senate.gov and click on the “Contact” button, and then “Share your opinion”.
2. Contact Senator Warren’s campaign manager Roger Lau. The only contact method we have for him is to send him a message on Facebook. If anyone has a better contact method, either email or office number, please provide it and it will be shared.
3. Call or email TIAA CREF, especially if you’re a teacher with your pension invested there. The fund managers for the CREF Equity Index Account are Jim Campagna and Lei Liao, both Managing Directors of Global Equities at Nuveen. Mr. Campagna’s email address is jcampagna@tiaa-cref.org. Or you can contact Roger Ferguson, CEO of TIAA, via email at rferguson@tiaa.org or by phone at 212-490-9000.
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