Individual Investors: Assess Your Portfolio

  1. Use Prison Free Funds to screen your mutual funds and ETFs for prison industrial complex holdings
  2. Review your 401(k) options, IRA holdings, and personal investment accounts
  3. Identify funds containing private prison operators, surveillance technology companies, and banks financing detention
  4. Schedule a meeting with your financial advisor to discuss findings and request alternatives

Anticipate Pushback from Advisors

Your financial advisor may suggest that divesting will reduce returns or increase risk. Respond with these points:

  • Private prison companies depend on volatile government contracts that change dramatically with electoral outcomes
  • Major banks withdrew financing in 2019 after assessing unacceptable business risks
  • CalPERS, CalSTRS, and major foundations report no financial setbacks from divestment
  • ESG factors have a direct relationship to economic and financial value
  • It is your money and you have the right to make investment decisions based on your values

If Your Broker Has Limited Options

Many large brokerage firms curate offerings around conventional funds that track major market indexes, which typically include private prison companies.

If your current advisor cannot provide funds aligned with your values, consider finding an independent advisor who specializes in sustainable and socially responsible investing.

For IRAs and personal portfolios you control directly, you have more flexibility to research and select mutual funds and ETFs that explicitly screen out prison industrial complex companies.

Changing Your Employer's 401(k): Build a Coalition

  1. Talk to colleagues and share Prison Free Funds results showing what your current plan options hold
  2. Use company intranets, employee portals, newsletters, or corporate chats to identify others who share your concerns
  3. Connect with corporate responsibility teams or employee engagement groups if they exist
  4. Create an informal coalition focused specifically on prison-free investing

Frame Your Request

When approaching plan administrators, frame your request around both values and risk:

"We want to reduce the future risk of our 401(k) fund choices. We also want to invest in a more just and equitable future. How can we enhance our 401(k) choices to do so?"

Bring solutions rather than just problems. Getting new fund choices added is a formal process that could take up to a year. If refused, you may need fellow employees to sign a petition requesting the change.

Corporate 401(k) Decision Chain

Plan Administrator: Implements decisions but usually lacks authority to change fund offerings unilaterally

Investment Committee: Evaluates options and makes recommendations based on fiduciary standards

CFO: Oversees the process and ensures regulatory compliance

Board of Directors: Has final authority over major policy decisions

Pressure can be applied at multiple points in this chain. Champions at any level can advance the cause.

For Foundations: Approach Your Investment Manager

  1. Request a comprehensive audit of current holdings against carceral apparatus screening criteria (not just private prisons, but surveillance technology, detention logistics, and financing)
  2. Reference precedent: The California Endowment, Nathan Cummings Foundation, and F.B. Heron Foundation all transitioned to prison-free portfolios with no reported financial setbacks
  3. Ask your investment manager to implement screens using Worth Rises harm scores or AFSC Investigate data
  4. Request quarterly reporting on carceral apparatus exposure alongside standard performance metrics

Foundation Screening Criteria

Comprehensive divestment requires looking beyond private prison operators to the full carceral apparatus:

Private detention: CoreCivic, GEO Group, and companies operating jails, prisons, or immigration detention facilities

Surveillance technology: Palantir, companies providing facial recognition, tracking systems, or data analytics to ICE and law enforcement

E-carceration: Ankle monitor and GPS tracking system providers

Detention support: Healthcare contractors, food service, commissary operators, and logistics companies serving detention facilities

Financing: Banks and financial institutions providing capital to the above

If Your Investment Manager Resists

Common objections and responses:

"It will hurt returns": The Nathan Cummings Foundation reports no financial setbacks from 100% mission-aligned investing. ESG research shows sustainable funds perform comparably to traditional funds.

"The screens are too narrow/broad": Request a phased approach starting with direct private prison operators, then expanding to the broader ecosystem.

"Our index funds can't be modified": Consider moving to actively managed prison-free funds or working with managers like Trillium, Boston Trust Walden, or Just Futures.

"It's not material to our mission": If your foundation works on justice, equity, immigration, or community wellbeing, carceral investments directly contradict mission alignment.