NYC Pension Funds Withdraw Investments From Private Prisons
- The decision affects investments totaling about $48 million
- The action is the first such pension divestment in the U.S.
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New York City’s pension funds have decided to sell its investments in private prison companies, citing a record of alleged human rights abuses and citing the risk of the industry attracting “long-term reputational and financial harm.”
Trustees for the city’s five pensions voted in mid-May to become the first retirement funds in the U.S. to divest such assets, totaling about $48 million worth of stock and bonds from GEO Group Inc., CoreCivic Inc. and G4S Plc, Comptroller Scott Stringer said in a statement Thursday. The amount represents a tiny portion of the more than $175 billion held on behalf of the city’s police officers, fire fighters, civil service workers, teachers and school administrators.