PRINCETON, NJ — Today, hundreds of Princeton Theological Seminary students and alumni delivered a demand letter to President Jonathan Walton demanding the removal of Michael Fisch from the Board of Trustees due to his role in the prison industry. Fisch’s private equity firm, American Securities, owns ViaPath (formerly GTL), a predatory prison telecom that rakes in more than $650 million annually charging incarcerated people and their families exorbitant rates to stay connected.
As a result of corporations like ViaPath, one in three families with an incarcerated loved one goes into debt — and the impact is felt disproportionately by Black communities who are overrepresented in our carceral system. Recently, the Seminary has sought to make amends for the harm it has caused the Black community due to its ties to slavery, it is in a similar vein that Seminary faculty, students, and alumni, many who provide spiritual counsel to incarcerated people and their families, now call for Fisch’s removal.
Signed by roughly 340 students and alumni, the letter reads, in part, “Fisch actively works against the stated values of Princeton Seminary. How can he continue to be entrusted with guiding its future, and our future, as practitioners of the gospel of Jesus Christ? It is not possible.”
“As a theological institution, Princeton Theological Seminary must be held accountable for its role in perpetuating the prison industrial complex,” said Angel Nalubega, MDiv student and moderator of Seminarians for Peace and Justice. “Seminarians for Peace and Justice has worked for years on campus to encourage endowment transparency and divestment from systems of inequality. Profiting off of the exploitation and oppression of incarcerated people is not in line with our call to build a ‘beloved community.’ Fisch’s removal from the Board of Trustees would be a step in the right direction, and help us start that work now.”
The campaign to oust Fisch resembles a similar campaign led by Worth Rises and Color of Change in 2020 that successfully forced the resignation of Tom Gores, CEO of Platinum Equity and owner of the Detroit Pistons, from the board of the LACMA for his similar role in the prison telecom industry. Gores’ firm owns ViaPath competitor, Aventiv Technologies (doing business as Securus and JPay).
“We are proud to support the courageous students and alumni of the Princeton Theological Seminary in calling for the removal of Michael Fisch from his position as the Chair of the Board of Trustees. We should not elevate and celebrate people who build their wealth preying on the most vulnerable in our society with prestigious positions that require moral integrity,” said Bianca Tylek, Executive Director of Worth Rises.
“It is unacceptable for the Princeton Theological Seminary Board of Trustees to be engaged in a system that violates human rights and exploits incarcerated people. The Seminary’s involvement in the carceral state is antithetical to its mission and antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus, which liberates the marginalized and oppressed,” said Reverend Erich Kussman, Princeton Theological Seminary alumni (MDiv 2019) who spent 12 years incarcerated. “The Princeton Theological Seminary gave me a second chance after I was incarcerated and released. How can it now claim to engage in a system that is out of step with the world, racially biased, and diverts resources from effective public safety investments? It can and must do better. The removal of Michael Fisch is a necessary first step.”