Our target here that we have direct ability to effect is Citizens Bank AND Stop & Shop. As you know Citizens Bank funds GEO Group and CoreCivic, both private, for-profit prisons used by ICE – you can learn more here www.boycottcitizens.org.
Why Stop & Shop?
- Key Platform for Citizens
Stop & Shop hosts hundreds of Citizens Bank branches and ATMs, giving the bank visibility and access to customers. Public pressure here could influence Citizens’ behavior. - Brand & Reputation Risk
Stop & Shop markets itself as community-focused. A connection to a bank funding private prisons could damage its image, especially if protests or campaigns gain media attention. - Leverage Through Partnership
Stop & Shop controls Citizens’ in-store presence. If the relationship becomes controversial or costly, it can renegotiate or terminate the partnership — putting real pressure on the bank.
Besides the in-person protests there are many other ways we can apply pressure to each.
Please complete each of these actions:
1 – Write to Citizens Corporate leadership
Dear _________,
I am writing to you as a concerned citizen of the United States, who has recently learned that Citizens Financial Group is a major financier of the private prison industry. Being a lender to the two largest private prison companies in the United States makes Citizens complicit in the illegal and immoral actions of ICE under the Trump Administration.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security are operating outside the bounds of the law by arresting people without warrants, failing to grant due process to all persons in the United States, and shipping people who have never gone before a judge to indeterminant confinement. They rely on our massive private prison infrastructure, largely composed of CoreCivic and GEO Group, to carry out an aggressive and cruel immigration policy that destabilizes our communities and hurts innocent children and families that are ensnared in its grasp.
The private prison industry creates perverse incentives by coupling profit with the incarceration of human beings. This coupling of profit with incarceration has created a society with one of the highest rates of per capita incarceration in the world; the United States is behind only El Salvador, Cuba, Rwanda, and Turkmenistan in the number of people it holds behind bars (https://www.statista.com/statistics/262962/countries-with-the-most-prisoners-per-100-000-inhabitants/).
Citizens has a choice as to whether it will continue to support an industry that profits from mass incarceration and deportation. Citizens has a choice in whether it will continue to fund the separation of families and the decimation of our communities. I urge Citizens to honor its stated commitment to strengthening communities by immediately ceasing its financing support of the private prison industry. I urge Citizens to make a public commitment to defunding this industry, sending a message to other lenders that profiting from human incarceration is unethical. Invest in education and healthcare to lift up humanity, not private prisons and a deportation-machinery that only seeks to control, police, sanction, and surveil human beings.
Sincerely,
[Name]
Email addresses to send to:
Peter.Lucht@citizensbank.com
Frank.Quaratiello@citizensbank.com
Rory.P.Sheehan@citizensbank.com
Eleni.Garbis@citizensbank.com
tricia.carter@citizensbank.com
2 – Sign the petition https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/citizens-bank-stop-financing-corecivic-and-the-geo-group
3 – If you bank with them – move and tell them why
4 – Call Citizens branch and tell them that you were interested in banking with the but heard that they were funding ICE detention centers and ask for clarification. They will inform leadership of the influx of calls.
5 – Write to Stop & Shop leadership
Dear Stop & Shop Leadership,
I am writing as a concerned customer and community member regarding your ongoing partnership with Citizens Bank and the presence of its branches and ATMs inside Stop & Shop stores.
As you may be aware, Citizens Bank has been publicly linked to the financing of private prison corporations — institutions that profit from mass incarceration, disproportionately affect communities of color, and operate with limited oversight and accountability. The continued funding of these systems by major banks has become a pressing human rights and social justice issue. You can ead more at www.boycottcitizens.org.
While Stop & Shop is not directly responsible for Citizens Bank’s investment decisions, your company provides the bank with a trusted platform, brand association, and access to customers through your in-store branches. This partnership sends an implicit message of endorsement, which conflicts with the ethical and community-focused values that Stop & Shop claims to uphold.
I’m calling on you to:
- Publicly disclose your criteria for evaluating banking and corporate partnerships.
- Investigate Citizens Bank’s role in financing private prison corporations.
- Reconsider your partnership with Citizens Bank unless and until the bank ends its support for private prisons.
By taking a stand, Stop & Shop has the opportunity to demonstrate leadership on a critical issue and align its operations with the values of fairness, equity, and corporate responsibility.
I urge you to act swiftly and transparently. As customers, we are prepared to elevate this issue through peaceful protest, public awareness campaigns, and boycott efforts, if necessary. However, we hope Stop & Shop will choose to be part of the solution — not the problem.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.
Email addresses to send to:
external.communications@stopandshop.com
patricia.johnson@stopandshop.com
Gordon.Reid@stopandshop.com
consumer_relations@stopandshop.com
Protest sign ideas:
Stop & Shop: Drop Citizens Bank!
Citizens Bank Funds Private Prisons
This Branch Supports Private Prisons – (arrow pointing at in-store Citizens location)
Stop & Shop: Cut Ties!
What’s in Your Store’s Bank?
Private Prisons = Public Shame
Stop & Shop: Do Better
Sign: “Citizens 🚫 – (with a prison bar graphic behind the bank’s logo)
Drop Citizens Now
Citizens Funds Injustice
No Justice at Citizens
Shame on Citizens Bank
Close the Citizens Branch
This Bank Hurts People
Citizens Banks on Misery
Stop & Shop: Take a Stand
No Justice, No Groceries
Cut Ties Now
Ethics Matter, Even In Aisle 4
No Deals with Dirty Banks
Don’t Shop with Prison Profits
This Store Supports Prisons
How Much for a Life?
Groceries or Chains?
Shop Here, Fund Prisons
Justice Over Profits
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