by Victoria Miele ’28 on March 19, 2026
News
The detention system in the United States is rapidly growing, mainly through two large prison companies, CoreCivic and The GEO Group. In 1995, the system had fewer than 7,500 beds. Over the past few years and in recent months, it has been expanding significantly; separating families, eroding rights to safety and due process, and endangering individuals.
One group that, despite having a value system centered around community, has been providing significant funding for these detention programs is Citizens Bank. Citizens is a bank that is publicly built on upholding community-centered institutions but has been giving loans and underwriting bonds, as well as providing credit to CoreCivic and The GEO Group for years. Citizens have helped these institutions access more than $2.5 billion to help finance their detention facilities. The bank continues to provide funding despite the numerous human rights and safety violations reported at many of these facilities.
Other banks, such as JPMorgan and Barclays, cut ties with the private prison industry in 2019. As a result of the new funding from last year’s budget bill, Immigration Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security will be using their $45 billion allocation to increase detention capacity to over 100,000 beds.
American citizens all over the U.S. held protests on Saturday, March 7 to express concern and protest Citizens’ financial support for CoreCivic and The GEO Group, who operate many ICE detention centers. The protests have been organized by the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition, which is dedicated to stopping Citizens from helping ICE. A spokesperson from the coalition, Peyton Flemming, said, “Citizens Bank continues to bankroll companies that are cashing in on the explosion of immigrant arrests and incarcerations across the country.”
Four protests were held in Rhode Island outside Narragansett, Providence, Wakefield, and Westerly Citizens Bank Locations. Other protests occurred in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
The goal of the protests is to hold Citizens Bank, other banks, and corporations accountable by the communities that these organizations claim to serve. With values strictly based on community, it is hard to understand why these organizations act in ways that directly harm those same communities.