Over the summer it was announced that the federal government would stop using private prisons. This was bad news for private prisons who make slavery-era plantation owner-like money from the business. Stocks fell as Hillary Clinton—leading in the polls—signified that this decision would continue for at least another four to eight years. But then Nazis and white supremacists everywhere won a victory for the prison state!
Investors are now betting heavily that, in Trump’s administration, the private facilities will be an essential component in a mass-scale deportation plan. They also say that Trump, given his background in private business, could push to undo the Justice Department plan. Trump’s new attorney general — Rudy Giuliani is one name that has commonly surfaced — could take that step fairly easily, by continuing and extending contracts with the private companies rather than letting them expire without renewal, as the current plan calls for.
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In the hours after Trump’s victory, the U.S.’s two largest private prison companies, CoreCivic and the Geo Group, saw their stocks soar like few others on Wall Street. Shares of CoreCivic, known until last month as Corrections Corporation of America, jumped 43 percent Wednesday and maintained those gains on Thursday. (Still, the price is down from the start of the year.) GEO’s shares bumped up 21 percent.
Obama’s immigration plan, which used private prison facilities, was not great, but Donald Trump’s immigration plan will be considerably worse with many more train rides to “detention centers.” So much profiteering on the pain of others to do and so little time.