National People’s Action demands bank cut ties to private prisons and payday lending
Yesterday, 1,000 community leaders from 25 states shut down three Wells Fargo branches to denounce the bank’s ties to private prisons and payday lending. The event included testimony from Abel Pacheco’s whose 11 year-old daughter was detained – alone – in a private detention center for 84 days.
Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btGnwoss6QU&feature=youtu.be
“If they can’t make money ripping you off, they’ll make money by locking you up,” said George Goehl, executive director, National People’s Action.
Wells Fargo borrows from the federal government at virtually 0 percent interest, lends it to private prison companies at interest rates as low as 3 percent, all while charging their own customers an average of 276 percent interest on their account-based payday loan product.
Wells Fargo is a major investor in the two largest private prison operators in the country, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group. These companies fill their prisons by spending millions of dollars on lobbying to keep the immigration and criminal justice systems broken. Wells Fargo and these companies make money – with taxpayers footing the bill – on every cell that is filled. They increase their profits by skimping on food, safety and medical care.
National People’s Action (NPA) is a network of grassroots organizations with a fierce reputation for direct action that works to advance a national economic and racial justice agenda. NPA has more than 200 organizers working to unite everyday people in cities, towns and rural communities throughout the United States through direct-action, house meetings and community organizing. www.npa-us.org
