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The 911 dispatch was just one small part of private equity’s expansion into emergency services; the far larger part was its acquisition of ambulance companies. It may be surprising to learn that ambulances were once free, overwhelmingly provided by the government—especially for younger people who h…

The situation was even worse in Bayonne, New Jersey, which had taken a similar deal with KKR and its operating partner a few years before. In announcing the agreement, the parties made big promises. A law firm hired by the water authority estimated that the city could save over $35 million over for…

Finally, as part of their rollup, private equity firms are expanding their carceral reach beyond prison itself and into prison release cards. These are debit cards that facilities give inmates when leaving jail or prison, in theory holding the money that the inmates brought with them, that they mad…

Faced with all this pressure, over the course of 2020, Gores and Securus announced a number of new measures. They would give away $3 million to reduce recidivism and improve prisoner reentry,64 they would continue to reduce the cost of calls,65 and Gores himself would give away his personal profits…

Republican and Democratic administrations both worked eagerly for forty years to make possible the growth of private credit and private equity firms’ role within it. In 1982, for instance, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under President Reagan issued Regulation D, through which compani…