Metro Nashville City Council members voted to pass a resolution that would keep the city from investing in private prison companies.
On Monday, council member Erica Gilmore announced a resolution that called for the city to divest from CoreCivic, a private prison company in Nashville and throughout Tennessee.
The next day, city officials responded by clarifying that the city does not invest or contribute to the company and hasn't since 2016.
Gilmore amended the bill to say the city will not invest in private prison companies going forward.
The final vote was 20 in favor, three no and 11 abstentions. There was a lot of discussion on the matter.
Councilman Vercher confirmed the city has not invested in Core Civic since 2016. Gilmore said the resolution still provided an opportunity to take a stand that the city doesn't’t support private prisons, and show that it won’t invest in these companies in the future.
Several council members called for the resolution to be deferred so they could study it more.
