New York City’s pensions have invested $1 billion in private equity firms that the second largest U.S. teachers’ union says profit from mass incarceration, including a buyout fund that owns the phone provider to the city’s jails, despite the retirement system’s push to avoid prison-related businesses.
The pensions have invested in Platinum Equity, LLC and American Securities LLC, owners of Securus Technologies, Inc. and Global Tel*Link Corp., respectively, according to a review of city investments. The companies dominate the market for phone and video visitation services to prisons and have been sued by inmates and their families for charging exorbitant ...