(Hold up the matzah.)

This is the bread of affliction. When we eat this bread, we remember that we were once slaves in Egypt. When we eat this bread, we remember that we were once strangers in a foreign land whose rulers hated and oppressed us. When we eat this bread, we remember how we once struggled for our freedom. We eat the bread of affliction to break the silence that surrounded oppression then, and the silence that surrounds oppression now.

We have come here today to draw attention to a crisis. Although we think of America as the land of the free, we live in a nation that incarcerates more people than any other in the history of the world.

In the last few years, many have stood up to say that two million prisoners is simply too many. Many have stood up to challenge a system that prioritizes new prisons over new school buildings; punishment over treatment; a jail economy over a sustainable economy. All in a system, where a vast majority of people going into prison are non-violent offenders.

Today, we stand in front of the global headquarters of Lehman Brothers investment bank. Over the past few years, Lehman Brothers has decided to invest its expertise, connections and capital in the expansion of the for-profit private prison industry. In the next few months, the company intends to consummate the biggest private prison deal ever-the refinance of Corrections Corporation of America's $1 billion credit agreement.

We are here to demand that Lehman call off the deal. Why? Because as Jews on Passover, we say ENOUGH! No one should profit off the misery and enslavement of others. These companies are salivating at new laws that will lead to the enslavement of thousands of immigrants. If these companies had their way, there would be three million prisoners. As we will do next week at our seder tables, we are hear to tell a story. A story of an industry that has abused human rights. An industry that has helped lobby for draconian criminal justice policies. And, today, we come to begin to write the end to this story, so that it becomes a story in which hope and renewal triumph over vindictiveness and hate.

In the fifteen years since CCA won its first contract to house INS detainees, the industry's track record has become littered with stories of mismanagement, corruption and abuse of prisoners and staff alike. It seems that there is nothing the industry will not do to make an extra dollar-refusing to release detainees despite judges' orders, using prison labor to complete construction of their own prisons, and cutting every conceivable corner from staffing to medical care to programs to broken door locks.

CCA benefits from more prisoners, and they've used their money and power to make sure there are more people in jail. Private prison companies have not only used lobbyists, campaign contributions and inside connections to win politicians over to costly prison expansion schemes, but they have also used the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council to pass the "three-strikes" and "truth in sentencing" laws that keep their beds and pockets full.

When we eat this bread, we remember that we were once strangers in a foreign land whose rulers hated and oppressed us.

In America, immigrants are detained in brutal conditions. They are held for months and years without the most basic civil rights.

Immigrants are the latest victims of the industry's "build them and fill them" strategy. When Corrections Corporation of America faced bankruptcy, they convinced the federal government to give them $600 million to fill an empty prison they owned with immigrants.

And after September 11th, they are at the edge of their seats for an influx of new detainees. Listen carefully to the words of Steve Logan, CEO of Cornell Corrections:

Lehman Brothers is about to bail out a company whose CEO said, "It's clear that since September 11 there's a heightened focus on detention… more people are gonna get caught. So I would say that's positive… with the focus on people that are illegal and also from Middle Eastern descent in the United States there are over 900,000 undocumented individuals from Middle Eastern decent... that is a population, for lots of reasons that is being targeted… The Federal business is the best business for us and… September 11 is increasing that business."

What did Lehman Brothers do when they were shown this offensive statement? The next month, they helped Cornell raise another $42 million from investors.

When we eat this bread, we remember that we were once slaves in Egypt.

Lehman Brothers should reflect on these questions in light of the company's own history. Lehman Brothers was founded in 1850 in Montgomery, Alabama as a cotton brokerage. Not only did the company profit from slavery through their cotton trade, but the founders owned slaves themselves and sided with the Confederacy in the Civil War.

What Lehman Brothers did a hundred and fifty years ago was legal. It was socially acceptable. And it was wrong.

It is still wrong. It may be legal for Lehman Brothers to finance prisons for profit. And it may seem socially acceptable-for now. But it is wrong, and it will not be tolerated. It is wrong to treat people as commodities, no matter what they have done in the past.

When we eat this bread, we remember how we once struggled for our freedom. We eat the bread of affliction to break the silence that surrounded oppression then, and the silence that surrounds oppression now.

This year, we live in a world where prisons are growing out of control to benefit the interests of a few at the expense of us all. Today, we draw a line to say this must stop, beginning with Lehman dropping this deal. Next year, through our organizing, may we live in a world of freedom.

For more info contact kpranis@nomoreprisons.org

2) A Passover Song for Lehman Brothers
Stop Prison Profiteering!
Sung to the tune of "Go Down Moses"

When Lehman deals with CCA
Let the people go
Compassion takes a holiday
Let the people go
Go down, fighters, stop the evil CCA,
Tell ol lehman, let the people go
To profit off of jailing lives
Let the people go
Should bring on you a plague of lice
Let the people go
Go down, fighters, stop prison profiteering,
Tell ol Lehman let the people go
Racist prisons jail our youth
Let the people go
Listen Lehman to the truth
Let the people go
Go down, fighters, stop racist juvy prisons
Mispucha Lehman, tell CCA NO!

3) Press Release

March 19, 2002 Contact: Sarah Eisenstein at
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 917-324-1972 or May Va Lor at 646-486-6715

JFREJ TO LEHMAN BROTHERS: DAYEINU! DIVEST!

Activists celebrate Passover by Warning Lehman about Prison Plague

New York, NY On Thursday, March 21st, with inflatable frogs and matzoh flying, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ) will celebrate Passover by telling #1 private prison financier Lehman Brothers to stop profiting from human misery and injustice. The protest will take place outside of Lehman Brothers' Manhattan offices at 745 Seventh Avenue (between 49th and 50th streets) from 4-6:30pm.

"The Passover story teaches us a love for freedom. It teaches us that our liberation is bound up with that of others. We are appalled that two million men and women -- most of them young people of color convicted of non-violent offenses -- are locked up in our country," says Rabbi Valerie Lieber of Temple Beth Ahavath Sholom. "Now private companies like Lehman Brothers have seized the systematic targeting and incarceration of people of color as a way to make big money -- and that sounds like slavery to us. As Jews, it is incumbent upon us to oppose oppression at any time of year; but at Passover, we are particularly compelled to speak out."

For over a decade now, Lehman Brothers has been aggressively facilitating the flow of capital into private prison expansion by underwriting major financial deals for for-profit private prisons corporations such as industry leader Corrections Corporation of America and Cornell Corrections. For example, last December Lehman was the lead manager of Cornell Corrections' offering of 3 million shares of stock which raised $42 million for Cornell to finish the construction of a prison in rural Mississippi which will house immigrant prisoners.

"Lehman actively supports an industry that boasts of locking people up as Cornell's CEO Steve Logan did after the events of September 11th," said Laura Schere, an activist with JFREJ's Schools not Jails committee.

On Cornell's third quarter analyst conference call, Logan said, "There are over 900,000 undocumented individuals from Middle Eastern descent [in the U.S.]. That's half of our entire prison population. … The federal business is the best business for us. It's the most consistent business, and the events of September 11 is [sic] increasing that business."

Presently, Lehman Brothers is the lead underwriter of the largest private prison deal in the history. It has until June to refinance Correction Corporation of America's $1 billion debt.

"For too long, Lehman Brothers' role in private prison expansion has gone unchecked," said May Va Lor, organizer with Not With Our Money!, a national network of student and community activists working to resist prison profiteering. "Students and community organizations - like JFREJ - in regions where Lehman does significant business, however, have put a face to vulture-like corporate greed and irresponsibility, and they've looking at Lehman Brothers," said Lor.