Cafeteria company divests of stock in American private prisons

Activists declare victory, vow to keep challenging Sodexho Marriott Services on foreign prison holdings

By: Ariel Troster

  MONTREAL: Student activists and cafeteria consumers are declaring victory after North America's largest institutional food service provider announced that it has sold its holdings in an American private prison company. French multinational Sodexho Alliance, which recently bought out food service company Sodexho Marriott Services, sold off its 8 percent stake in Corrections Corporation of America on May 30. Chairman Pierre Bellon said in a company press release that "we have now determined that our CCA investment is no longer in line with our strategic objectives and is in conflict with our policy."
  Anti-prison activist Kevin Pranis finds Bellon's "mysterious change of heart" amusing, Pranis' group The Prison Moratorium Project spearheaded a North American cafeteria boycott campaign aimed at pressuring Sodexho Alliance into divesting of its CCA shares. The campaign spread to over 60 colleges and universities, including The University of Toronto and Concordia University in Montreal. He places the credit for the company's decision squarely on the shoulders of the students who spoke out.
  "At the CCA shareholder's meeting, Bellon said Sodexho Alliance was pulling out because of student pressure," said Pranis.
  Sodexho Marriott Services is the largest institutional provider of food services in North America with $4.5 billion in annual revenue. The company has contracts with 60 universities and colleges in Canada and more than 500 in the United States. The French multinational Sodexho Alliance owned 48 per cent of the company's stock until last month, when it announced that it would be buying out the rest of the company.
  CCA manages 65 private prison facilities, with an inmate population of more than 53,000 in 21 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The company has come under fire for a series of escapes and violent incidents in its facility in Youngstown, Ohio. Mother Jones recently reported that the federal Bureau of Prisons has announced plans to move all the Youngstown inmates to other facilities by August.
  The prison company's stock has also plunged in value over the last couple of years, perhaps due to the negative press that the company has been receiving. In 1998, the company's stock was worth at $46 US a share, and now stands at less than $1 a share, according to Pranis.
  Sodexho's Bellon also announced that the company has established a new policy regarding prison services. According to the company's press release, "Sodexho will provide services to prisons only in those countries which are established democracies, where death penalty is illegal and which do have rehabilitative policies for inmates." When asked if this means the company will refrain from investing in the American prison industry ever again, Sodexho Marriott spokesperson Leslie Aun replied "that's what it said."
  The company also said it "will not own any prison or jail facility," and "will not provide services requiring our employees to carry firearms." At CCA's annual shareholders' meeting last month, Sodexho Alliance's Jean-Pierre Cuny resigned from the company's Board of Directors.
  Still, Pranis remains skeptical of the company's intentions. His group continues to dispute Sodexho Marriott's claim that U.K. Detention Services, another company owned by Sodexho Alliance, doesn't operate private prisons.
  According to Aun, "these companies do not operate private prisons, they provide contracted services such as food, cleaning, maintenance, etc. to two government-owned prisons in UK and one government-owned prison in Australia, similar to what Aramark and Compass do in the U.S."
  In an interview a few weeks ago, Pranis called Aun's assertion "bizarre," pointing out that U.K. Detention Services continues to run the Agecroft prison in Salford, England, while CCA Australia ran the Borallon men's prison (publicly owned, privately operated) in Queensland and Deer Park women's prison in Victoria (privately owned, privately operated), until the company lost both contracts, and sold the Deer Park facility to the Australian government.
  Still, Aun is puzzled as to why Sodexho Marriott continues to be a target for activists.
  "Sodexho has sold its stake in CCA. Sodexho continues to provide services to prisons, as do hundreds of other companies. If PMP is going to target every company that provides services to prisons and colleges, then they better get out the Fortune 500 list and take a look at all the companies that do business in both sectors," she said. "Why single out Sodexho?"
  Pranis said his group will continue to step up the pressure until Sodexho Alliance gets rid of its foreign prison holdings.
  "We hope what Bellon says about their operations in the UK and Australia is accurate," said Pranis. "But the information we have suggests otherwise. If we find out U.K. Detention Services and CCA Australia do in fact operate private prisons, Sodexho Marriott's problems will be made more difficult in the fall."
  But Aun said that Pranis' group has picked the wrong target.
  "All along we have said that the way to help prisoners is to lobby the people who make the laws, not the people who make the french fries. If PMP really cares about prisoners, it's seems that now is the time to start demonstrating their concern with actions that will have a real impact and would actually benefit those who are incarcerated," she said.

Posted: June 04, 2001

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