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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

 

He Died in a Florida Jail. The Company in Charge Should Have Sent Him to the Hospital, Experts Say.

by Nichole Manna

For 30 minutes, Brian Tracey lay naked and unable to breathe on the floor of the medical ward at the St. Johns County Detention Center, a low-roofed building south of Jacksonville, Florida. It was Dec. 15, 2023, the day Tracey was supposed to be released …

$3.25 Million Verdict in New York Against Jail Medical Profiteer Armor Health

by Chuck Sharman

On June 24, 2026, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York awarded $3.25 million in damages to former jail detainee Thomas Donohue against Armor Correctional Health, which held the contract at the time of his 2014 incarceration to …

After Spoliation Sanction, CoreCivic Settles Suit Over Suicide in New Mexico ICE Lockup

by Chuck Sharman

In March 2026, after what was likely the first-ever civil sanction against a private prison company for spoliation of evidence, CoreCivic settled a suit filed over the suicide of a Brazilian migrant at the company’s Torrance County Detention Facility (TCDF), a lockup operated under contract …

SCOTUS Shuts Down GEO Group Bid for Immunity in Suit by Colorado ICE Detainees

by Chuck Sharman

In a decision issued on February 25, 2026, the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) affirmed dismissal of an appeal filed by prison profiteer The GEO Group, after a federal district court refused to grant the firm immunity from a suit challenging conditions at a …

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