A new report released today by In The Public Interest reveals that six major Wall Street firms work in tandem with the industry: financing its debts, servicing its bonds, and extending billions of dollars in credit to pay for its operating expenses and expansion into related markets, like selling ankle GPS systems to monitor immigrants.

By acting as a credit card for private prisons, those six banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas, SunTrust, US Bancorp and Wells Fargo — help the prison companies avoid corporate taxes...

The banks behind the prison industry, of course, see things differently. “We do not as a corporation take positions on public policy issues that do not directly affect our company’s ability to serve customers and support team members,” Ruben Pulido, VP of corporate communications at Wells Fargo, told IBT. “We have banking relationships with tens of thousands of companies in hundreds of different sectors, and we only do business with companies that have demonstrated a strong, ongoing commitment to complying with all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations."...