Private Prisons: Investments in Human Suffering

It was recently brought to my attention that New Mexico’s Educational Retirement Board has investments in private prisons. Undoubtedly, other retirement funds also have these investments.

When I heard this news, I realized, because I have had some connections with prisons most of my life, that my story might help inspire change.

Both my mother and father were heavily engaged with the Iowa State Penitentiary. My father donated his time for 30 years as a prison doctor and the prisoners loved him. I have the desk they carved for him as a thank you.

My mother, who was Mexican, also volunteered in the prison after Dad died. She got men off death row, found men serving the wrong time or someone else’s time, and even men who weren’t supposed to be in prison. One of those men helped Mom and another friend go to DC and meet with the Federal Highway Commission, during the push for urban renewal, to keep a highway from destroying our Mexican village in Fort Madison, Iowa. Crispus Nix, retired US Army colonel and warden at the time, gave the eulogy at her funeral. In the early 1900’s the prisoners at ISP were mostly Irish who were one of the minorities then. Now, Blacks and Native Americans are significantly overrepresented relative to the state’s population.