The largest banking institution in the US. Has been one of the main financiers of private prison and immigrant detention companies. In March 2019 it has announced it would not give these companies new loans. Also charges prisoners exorbitant rates for prison banking services.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a financial holding company headquartered in New York City. The company is a leading global financial services firm with $2.74 trillion in assets, and annual revenue of $131.412 billion in 2018.
JPMorgan Chase has been identified as one of the six major banks supporting private prisons and immigrant detention. As part of a syndicate of banks, JPMorgan Chase has extended hundreds of millions of dollars in a revolving line of credit, term loans, and bonds to the two largest private prison and immigrant detention companies in the U.S.: CoreCivic and GEO Group. These companies rely on banks and financing organizations to bankroll their operations and expansion into more carceral and punishment industries.
JPMorgan Chase has also been identified as one of the investors that own over one million shares in CoreCivic and GEO Group, dubbed as “The Million Shares Club” and targeted by Freedom to Thrive. As of its 2018 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, JPMorgan Chase owns 202,953,903 shares in CoreCivic and 2,975,344 shares in GEO Group.
In March 2019, JPMorgan Chase announced it would step away from financing private prison companies. It is unclear from the announcement what this would entail. Existing loan agreements with these companies will continue for a few more years, and the announcement did not mention the bank's continued investment in private prison companies.
Other Controversies
JPMorgan has been targeted for its financing of the fossil fuel industry, including the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). In May 2018, a coalition of several environmental and human rights organizations called for a protest at the bank’s annual shareholders meeting. In that same month, fourteen protesters were arrested for blocking downtown Seattle as part of a nationwide protest against JPMorgan Chase for the company’s role in funding projects detrimental to environmental sustainability. In March 2017, the Oakland City Council voted to terminate its contract for banking services with the bank, due to its complicity in private prison financing and the Dakota Access Pipeline.
- On May 8, 2019 GEO Group cited in their first-quarter securities filing that growing public pressure to divest from the private prison industry and institutional resistance from banks"could have a material adverse effect on our business." The announcement comes recently after JP Morgan and Wells Fargo announced a moratorium on new financing for private detention facilities.
- On April 26, 2017, University of Wisconsin-Madison students passed a resolution to call for the university's divestment from private prisons and corporations that build border walls, naming Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Honeywell, L-3 Communications, Boeing, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, BNP Paribas, Suntrust, US Bank Corp., and Wells Fargo.