Warren Financially Benefited from Private Prisons Despite Claiming They Are ‘Profiteering off Cruelty’

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) benefited financially from the existence of private prisons despite vowing to ban them on the grounds that they are “profiteering off cruelty,” a report from the Washington Free Beacon revealed.

Warren pledged in June to ban private immigration centers and private prisons, detailing the vow in a Medium post.

“There should be no place in America for profiting off putting more people behind bars or in detention,” Warren wrote:

We didn’t get here by chance. Washington works hand-in-hand with private prison companies, who spend millions on lobbyists, campaign contributions, and revolving-door hires — all to turn our criminal and immigration policies into ones that prioritize making them rich instead of keeping us safe.

“That’s why I will shut down the use of federal private detention facilities by ending all contracts that the Bureau of Prisons, ICE, and the U.S. Marshals Service have with private detention providers,” Warren continued, accusing private prisons of engaging in “exploitation, plain and simple.”

Handcuffed suspect allegedly slips restraints, steals Dallas police cruiser with officer trapped in back seat

Overcrowded migrant vessel with 240 people on board intercepted near Turks and Caicos

Rubio sanctions Cuban groups with ties to US nonprofit network funded by communist donor Neville Roy Singham

New Jersey man accused of killing wife with barbell allegedly confessed in messages to relatives: report

Trump announces ‘rally to end all rallies’ in DC to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary

Feds say US citizen gathered information on American targets for Chinese Communist Party

AOC dodges questions on abuse allegations, Nazi tattoo claims rocking Platner’s campaign

18 House Republicans defy Trump to pass Ukraine aid package headed for veto fight

CA City Puts up Cameras in 18 Locations, Catches Citizens Breaking the Law 151,000 Times in Just 1 Month

Watch: Trump Sets the Record Straight on His Explosive Conversation with Netanyahu

Video: Karmelo Anthony Supporters Scream Racial Slurs at White Demonstrator Outside Courthouse

Four Senate Republicans again unite with Dems to block Trump’s SAVE America Act

‘He hated women’: Explosive abuse, new Nazi tattoo allegations from exes rock Platner’s campaign

‘I Would Rape Them to Show Them I’m Dominant’ – Graham Platner’s Campaign Won’t Dispute Shocking Quote in NYT Report

Israel-Lebanon ceasefire could undermine Hezbollah and Iran with state-to-state cooperation

She even implicated the Trump administration, accusing it of luring in private prison companies, which “saw their chance to run the same playbook for our immigration system.”

Despite those pleas, Warren has benefited financially from the existence of private prisons.

According to the Free Beacon, Warren invested tens of thousands of dollars — $50,000 — in a Vanguard Group fund which “owned hundreds of millions of dollars worth of shares in leading private prison companies. While she sold her stakes in that fund in 2013, the Free Beacon noted that it was “the largest shareholder of America’s largest private prison corporation” at the time.

The Free Beacon reported:

Warren invested in Vanguard Target Retirement 2025—a retirement account run by the Vanguard Group, an investment management company—which in turn invested more than 30 percent of its money in Vanguard’s domestic stock index fund. Vanguard was the top shareholder of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), and one of the largest of GEO Group, both private prison companies, according to data from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Vanguard owned more than 12 million CCA shares and nearly 9 million GEO Group shares, which were worth roughly $456 million and $216 million, respectively, in March 2013.

CCA, now called CoreCivic, was already the country’s largest owner of private prisons in 2013, according to an annual report. The company owned or controlled more than 50 correctional or detention facilities in the country, “with a total design capacity of approximately 86,000 beds in 20 states and the District of Columbia.” GEO Group is also one of the largest private prison providers in the country with 66 prison facilities across the world as of 2013. The two companies also operate many Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities for illegal immigrants.