Skip navigation

The Private Prison Industry

The private prison industry includes for-profit companies that provide correctional services. Most well-known are companies such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA, which has rebranded as "CoreCivic"), the GEO Group and Management & Training Corp. (MTC), which own and operate prisons, jails and other detention facilities. CCA and GEO are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

A wide variety of other correctional services are also privatized, and thus monetized -- including prison medical care, mental health care, food services, transportation services, pharmaceutical services, telephone services, money transfer services, commissary/canteen services, video visitation, secure email services and more. Together these companies make up the private prison industry, which directly profits and benefits from incarceration.


 Are you aware of private prison contract violations? 

We are interested in hearing from whistleblowers, including current or former private prison employees, who are aware of contract violations or fraud by private prison firms. For example, contracts may require that private prison operators provide specific services or programs that they are not providing, or specific staffing levels they have failed to meet. If you have documentation about contract violations or fraud at private prisons, please contact us confidentially via our contact page. Note that whistleblowers may be entitled to financial compensation for exposing fraud by government contractors.

 

Recent Articles

 

GEO Group Funnels Millions to Trump PAC Following Windfall ICE Contracts

by Jo Ellen Knott

Corporate influence-peddling is alive and well in the Trump brand of politics. Private prison titan The GEO Group handed over $1.4 million to President Donald Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., just days after securing federal detention contracts worth $165 million annually.

Campaign finance …

$700,000 Paid by West Virginia for Jail Death, Claims Against Wexford Health Pending

by Chuck Sharman

The West Virginia Circuit Court for Kanawha County gave its approval on September 1, 2026, to a $700,000 settlement reached five days earlier between the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) and Lisa Huffman, personnel representative of the Estate of Nathan James Kennedy, a …

CoreCivic’s Non-Binding Promises Leave Minnesota City Exposed

by Jo Ellen Knott

The sale of Minnesota’s shuttered Prairie Correctional Facility to the federal government has left the small city of Appleton (1,300 residents) facing tax revenue loss, infrastructure strain, and unenforceable corporate promises from private prison giant CoreCivic.

After CoreCivic sold the 1,600-bed facility to …

Ninth Circuit Refuses to Stay Injunction in Detainees’ Challenge to Conditions at California ICE Lockup

by Chuck Sharman

On August 20, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling declining to stay an injunction preventing federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from subjecting migrant detainees to unconstitutional conditions of confinement at its Adelanto Processing Center in …

More articles