Grassroots Leadership, along with activists in Austin and Houstin, is gearing up for a second vigil outside of the IAH Polk Secure Adult Detention Center calling for the immediate closure of the facility as a first step towards ending immigrant detention. Read more about Humpday Hall of Shame: Keeping Immigrant Fathers Behind Bars

  Read more about Humpday Hall of Shame: CCA Lauds Results of Study that was Paid for By the Private Prison Industry

Last week Grassroots Leadership joined people from around the country in Nashville, TN to protest outside of Corrections Corporation of America's annual shareholder meeting where, this year, the for-profit prison company was "celebrating" their 30th anniversary.  Among the protestors was long-time Grassroots Leadership ally Alex Friedmann who is a former prisoner and current President of the Private Corrections Institute (PCI).  Alex spent six years in a CCA-operated prison and since his incarceration he has dedicated his life to criticizing the private, for-profit prison industry.  To that end, he became a CCA shareholder in order to engage in shareholder activism.  Alex owns enough shares in the company to attend shareholder meetings and to advance shareholder resolutions; a tool that he has used to try and force the hand of the company to acknowledge and address its record of abuse, neglect and mismanagment.  

After two puzzling celebrations -- Black History Month and Women's History Month -- CCA is back at it, this time with Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.  We have our own ideas about CCA's treatment of people of color and, after the jump, a special message from Kat Brady, our ally in Hawai'i and longtime activist for criminal justice in her state.

Not surprisingly, Hawai'i incarcerates the largest proportion of Asian American and Asian Pacific Islander (API) individuals, and more than 1,700 people from Hawai'i are incarcerated in CCA facilities on the mainland.  As a result, Asian/API men are disproportionately represented in CCA facilities relative to state-operated facilities.  In state-operated facilities, Asian/API men represent 63% of the total population, whereas in out-of-state CCA facilities Asian/API men represent 69% of the total population.  These facts make CCA's latest public relations exploit of people of color particularly nauseating.  It's Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and you-know-who is "honoring" it!  In his commemorative blog post, CCA CEO Damon Hininger writes,

"Last year, I visited Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, Calif. I was inspired by the preservation of history and values in the midst of other cultural influences in L.A. The fact that it remains a close-knit community is evidence that we all carry the strength to keep traditions alive and uphold standards set before us at CCA."

We had no idea that CCA holds up the preservation of history, traditions and culture and standards for their company!  We decided to reach out to our new friend in Hawai'i, Kat Brady, to see what she knows about Hawai'i's incarcerated population in CCA facilities.