Belmont students, alumni want school to cut ties with private prison operator
NASHVILLE — As tensions increase between CoreCivic and Nashville, with the private prison management company threatening to walk away from its contract with the city, Belmont University students and alumni are calling for the school to cut its own ties with CoreCivic and its stakeholders.
More than 300 students have launched a social media campaign, “Be Better Belmont,” and they have drafted a letter to Belmont President Bob Fisher calling for the university “to fully divest from the prison system and anyone involved with it.”
Some of the issues the group is raising include board leadership and financial contributions to the university from CoreCivic or those who profit from the company.
Belmont University and CoreCivic officials say, though, that the information students and alumni are sharing about the university’s connection to CoreCivic is incorrect.
“In order to fully live out our values, our Belmont University family must make the difficult but necessary choice to fully divest from the prison system and anyone involved with it. We know that education allows people to speak truth to power, and in light of what we now know, there is no other choice but for us to act in accordance with our core values and demand that Belmont University make changes,” the letter obtained by The Tennessean newspaper reads.
“The City of Nashville’s participation with Core Civic is coming to an end, and it is time for our university to follow suit. We realize that it will be a challenging
transition to remove board members and fully divest from fiscal relationships with the prison industrial complex, but we are dedicated to the completion of this work.”
The group asks for Damon Hininger, CEO of CoreCivic, to step down from Belmont’s board of trustees, as well as for board members Andrea Overby, Joe Russell, Marty Dickens and John Ferguson to “step down from the Board of Trustees or publicly sever ties to their affiliation with CoreCivic.”
Ferguson, was previously a chairman for CoreCivic and Overby’s husband serves on CoreCivic’s own board. The group argues that “no one affiliated with or profiting from any prison system” should be allowed to serve on the board or in a leadership role at the university.
“It is time for every nation and university to fully divest from any kind of partnership with the private prison system,” said Robert Gay, a graduate of Belmont, in a letter to Fisher shared with The Tennessean. “It is important for Belmont to lead the way as a Christian institution. There is nothing Christlike about the business of a company that puts children and adults in cages for profit.”
Gay said that, in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody in May, he and many current and former students began to explore their alma mater’s part in systematic racism.
“This partnership is shameful and harmful, I am not proud of something so questionable to be endorsed by the university that I call home,” Gay said.
The group also demands Belmont refuse any future donations or funding from CoreCivic or personal donations from the CEO, anyone on the board of CoreCivic, or any shareholders of CoreCivic.
Last week, Metro Nashville council members Emily Benedict and Freddie O’Connell introduced legislation to end the city’s contract after Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall indicated that his office could assume control of the Metro-Davidson County Detention Facility in South Nashville.
On Monday, the company announced its plans to walk away from the relationship on its own and accused city leaders of “playing politics.”
In a letter to Mayor John Cooper, Hall and the Metro Council, Hininger said the company cannot allow itself to be “used as a punching bag by political opportunists,” and the city is stringing along the company as it looks to bring operations in-house.
The company also announced last week that it will end its management of Silverdale Detention Center in Hamilton County, which it has operated since 1984, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.