#NMERBdivest Campaign
NEW MEXICO: WE DID IT! WAY TO GO!!
On October 16, 2020, the NM Educational Retirement Board (NMERB) voted to divest from private prison companies. The NMERB manages a $13 billion ($13,000,000,000) retirement fund for public education employees in New Mexico. This vote was a direct result of pressure from New Mexicans around the state, led by the Prison Divest NM coalition. This represents the first public pension fund in the Southwest US to successfully divest from private prisons.
https://www.sfreporter.com/news/2020/10/16/going-down-the-slope/
Download the Prison Divest Toolkit
For Divesting Public Funds from Private Prisons
VJ projection featuring B.A.King, former county jail in Downtown Albuquerque
Working with Prison Divest NM, a coalition that includes Santa Fe Dreamers Project, Teachers Against Child Detention, and Bend the Arc Jewish Action NM, fronteristxs has staged actions to urge the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board to divest pension funds from private prisons.
As of August 14, 2020 approximately 50,000 shares of public school educator and staff retirement funds were invested in CoreCivic and GEO Group, two private prison corporations that operate 7 facilities in New Mexico, including jails, state prisons, and ICE detention centers. New Mexico uses private, for-profit prisons for about 44% of our state’s incarcerated people, compared to 8% in the rest of the US. Private facilities are infamous for maltreatment and shoddy conditions. They have minimal health and hygiene protocols, which they rarely follow, as revealed by increasing cases of positive COVID-19 cases in each facility.
Action #1:
Sign the petition to divest NMERB funds from private prisons.
Action #2:
Submit public comments to NMERB in support of divestment.
