For Immediate Release

July 17, 2014

Contact: CJ Frogozo, 310.570.2622 cj@fitzgibbonmedia.com

New York, NY– After months of silence, the voices of nearly 25,000 ColorOfChange members has moved Temple University to take action on a pending ethics complaint against the highly inaccurate and unethical private prison study published by two Temple professors. The study, released as a working paper in April 2013, claimed state costs savings and other benefits through prison privatization; however, researchers did not initially disclose that it had been funded by the country’s largest for-profit prison firms: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the GEO Group and Management Training Corp (MTC).

“We see this as a step in the right direction and we know Temple needs to do more to set a higher standard of ethical research. Temple President Neil Theobald has a choice to make – uphold the University’s commitment to ethical and honest research or allow for-profit prisons to corrupt Temple’s academic integrity,” said Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange. “The stakes are just too high. Private prison-sponsored research allows the industry to defend their widespread human rights violations, systemic abuse of youth, and deeply unethical business practices; all with the authority of university-approved research,” continued Robinson.

ColorOfChange recently launched the campaign targeting the Temple University study on prison privatization, following an ethics complaint filed by Alex Friedmann, Associate Director of the Human Rights Defense Center. Dr. Michele Masucci, Interim Vice Provost for Research at Temple said that she had completed an examination of the ethics complaint, writing to Friedmann, “As you know, the working paper was withdrawn and is no longer widely available. Additionally, University records do not reveal that [the private prison study] received grant funds,” and thus “many months ago we directed that correction be made to any publication that inaccurately attributed Temple’s connection to this work.” Further, Dr. Masucci stated the University would “address its conclusions, including any action specific [sic] pertaining to the respondents,” individually with Drs. Simon Hakim and Erwin Blackstone.

“We cannot allow the private prison industry to use Temple University for political cover or to gain public legitimacy. There are still many unanswered questions and more action that university officials must take to protect research integrity from this corruption,” concluded Robinson.

For interviews with Rashad Robinson, please contact CJ Frogozo at CJ@FitzGibbonMedia.com or 310 570 2622.

###

With over 900,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest online civil rights organization.