Thursday, November 10, 2016

Private prison stocks soar on election news

Private prison stocks soared upon news of Donald Trump's ascension to the presidency.

That makes sense. For starters, it's possible that Trump will reverse the DOJ's recent decision to phase out private prison contracts. And the election likely has eliminated the possibility of federal sentencing reform in the near future. Thinking more long-term, if Trump makes good on his campaign promises to implement mass deportation, private prison companies may look forward to enormous new contracts as the feds try to process 11 million people through a system designed to handle a fraction of that volume.

Who knows if that campaign promise was real; certainly it was unrealistic. But I can understand why investors would interpret the election as portending a reversal in fortune for private prison companies. They're probably right.

6 comments:

Lee said...

Scott, I am still in shock over how Trump won as I had predicted Hillary to have at least 300 though we the people did not elect Trump, the electoral system did as she won the popular vote. I am looking at the electoral map still wondering how he did this in the same way that General Howe and General Clinton were wondering how they had more funds, better mercenaries, better equipment, qualified officer corps, the most powerful navy holding the major cities were defeated by a coalition of radicals, misfits, rednecks and farmers that lacked shoes, proper training, functioning weapons and quality leadership. Trump made every mistake in the book during his campaign (racism, ignorance, sexism, just being a jerk) and won. The world really turned upside down and I am expecting the next surprise that life dishes out to he that the new sum of 2 plus 2 to be five.

With Trump being elected the few steps forward in the major progressive movements in criminal justice reform will be lost to major leaps backward starting with the return of the private prison industry. Next we could see the SCOTUS nominee reaffirm the death penalty and close the window on what was probably our best chance to declare the death penalty unconstitutional permanently. Immigrants will become targets and the procedure know as trial be cash that makes our nation the world's largest jailer will accelerate.

Although Joe Acpiaro is gone and Ogg beat out Anderson, I fear Trump will Trump it all.

As you say in your last post that after the primaries there was not going to be a good outcome in the election, Trump alone makes this outcome is almost as bad as it could possibly be.

This is just bad news everywhere that might

Anonymous said...

Well at least Grits will have plenty to blog about during the next 4-years. If anyone thinks cops are killing people now, just wait until Trump's justice department stops conducting any investigations into the murders. I fully expect to see an all-out guerilla war waged in our inner cities with large losses suffered on both sides. The next few years promise to be bloody, but at least they won't be boring.

Anonymous said...

Funny if it wasn't so sad.
For profit prisons were a but a test tube baby till the clintons came along.

And 7:21 You must be a real babe in the woods.
"wait until.... justice department stops conducting any investigations into the murders".
The Rose law firm inspired Justice department coined a phrase for that exact scenario back in the 90s. They called it "Prosecution 101".

Trump may well prove to be a disaster for civil rights. The clintons took a wreaking ball to 'em. Bringing them back ain't progress.


Anonymous said...

Some of you still demonstrate why your candidate lost the election. Quite simply you are clueless about the mood of the majority and the broad trends in society. Which stock sector didn't rally after the election? When did the stock markets not rally after a presidential election?

Just as it was obvious that Trump would win, it's obvious that it's a bad move to invest in private prison company stocks and if your child is interested in criminal justice it is a good move for he or she to focus on community corrections and probation & parole vs. law enforcement.

Perhaps it would be helpful to shed your ideology, just for a minute, and try to take a fresh, objective look at the world and the problems confronting you. It's not 1996 anymore.

Anonymous said...

Until the progressives raised hell (Thanks to the Bernie Sander's Campaign), Hillary had thousands in private prison donations rolling in. The private prison industry moved over to supporting Trump after Hillary was forced to turn away private prison money. Trump stated “I do think we can do a lot of privatizations, and private prisons it seems to work a lot better.”

CLASSIC PAY FOR PLAY POLITICS FROM BOTH HILLARY AND TRUMP. Trump is not the anti-establishment guy Americans thought they were voting for. He has always been an inside player in politics and has metamorphosed from a giver to a recipient.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

@Crosstimbers Okie, since private prisons stocks had plunged most of the year, and their bounce was larger than the stock market overall, there's probably a bit more going on here than that. This is about contracts they thought they'd lose that folks now assume Trump will renew. The investors with skin in the game appear to disagree with your view from the sidelines that "it's obvious that it's a bad move to invest in private prison company stocks," even if I wish you were right.