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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

 

Florida Sheriff Received $50,000 Donation from Jail Medical Contractor

Armor Health, the company that held a $24 million contract to provide healthcare at the Lee County Jail, gave local Sheriff Carmine Marceno a $50,000 donation four months before the medical contract was terminated, according to the The News-Press in Fort Myers. On February 23, 2024, Armor health made …

Georgia Grand Jury Scolds Augusta Jail for Overcrowding Days Before Violent Detainee Assault

by Chuck Sharman

On January 16, 2025, a grand jury in Georgia’s Richmond County reported that its inspection of the County jail revealed serious overcrowding, with mattresses on the floor pressing many cells into double-occupancy. As if to underscore the problem’s seriousness, a detainee was violently assaulted and …

Missouri Pays $212M for Prison Health Care, But Prisoner Deaths Aren’t a Performance Measure

by Rudi Keller

This article was originally published in the Missouri Independent.

 

Whether prisoners die while in state custody is not used to measure the performance of Missouri’s private prison health care contractor, the state’s top corrections official told lawmakers on January 14, 2026.

Alarming Conditions at Texas Family Detention Center Owned by CoreCivic

In late February 2026, reporting on the Dilley Immigration Processing Center revealed harrowing details about the conditions under which families are being detained at the facility.

Dilley received public attention last month following the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest in Minneapolis of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old …

More articles