When money cages communities
2 min read · October 10, 2025
New Power Labs
The private prison industry is a relatively new phenomenon of the 1980s, one that has transformed incarceration and family separation into a business model. To finance expansion, companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group relied on Wall Street credit lines, REIT conversions, and institutional investors.
In 2018, during the family separation crisis, Morgan Simon and the Real Money Moves campaign began tracing how major banks financed private prison operators, profiting from immigrant detention.
It was a groundbreaking exposé. In the U.S., if you banked with any of the major Wall Street banks, your money was likely going towards supporting private prisons. In Canada, our largest federal pension plan, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP), bought over 600,000 shares of private prison companies.
Morgan Simon’s advocacy led banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and more to cease future financing of private prison companies. In 2021, Simon reported that Canada’s PSP would also divest from U.S. private prisons.
When CoreCivic sued her for defamation, a federal judge dismissed the case, affirming her claims were factually grounded.
As Simon notes, “Behind every social challenge is the nefarious hand of money causing pain, but also, the opportunity to subvert the harms of capitalism by investing in real solutions.”
Capital isn’t neutral. It’s a lever that can entrench inequality or unlock the potential of communities.
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Morgan Simon is speaking at our Capital Unlocked 2025 Summit. Join us on November 13th in Toronto to explore the future of capital.
Narinder
New Power Labs
Narinder
New Power Labs
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