Private Equity

Stakeholder

Project

December 2018

PRIVATE EQUITY-OWNED FIRMS DOMINATE PRISON
AND DETENTION SERVICES
Scaled up immigration detention has benefitted contractors,
private equity owners
A handful of private equity firms, drawing on capital from pension funds,
foundations, endowments, insurance companies, and other institutional
investors have invested heavily in companies providing services to prisons,
jails, and detention facilities around the United States and the more than
two million people housed at those facilities.
While public and investor debate around the privatization
of prisons, jails, and detention facilities has largely focused
on publicly-traded companies such as CoreCivic and GEO
Group, the largely private equity-owned firms that provide
phone services, commissary services, medical services, bail
bonds and other services are perhaps more ubiquitous,
serving thousands of prison, jail, and detention facilities
around the country.
As the Trump administration has ramped up immigrant
detention, many of these same firms and their private equity
owners have stood to profit.

ADELANTO ICE PROCESSING CENTER (CA)1
Wellpath (H.I.G. Capital)2
Keefe Group (H.I.G. Capital)3

SCALED-UP IMMIGRANT DETENTION BRINGS MORE
BUSINESS FOR PE-OWNED SERVICE PROVIDERS

SAN LUIS REGIONAL DETENTION CENTER (AZ)4
Securus (Platinum Equity)5

The scaling up of immigration detention under the Trump
administration has led to additional business for firms that
provide services to those detainees. Many of the private
equity-owned firms listed above provide services to facilities
that house immigrant detainees. For example:

FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL COMPLEX, VICTORVILLE (CA)6
Global Tel Link (American Securities)7
CIBOLA COUNTY CORRECTIONAL CENTER (NM)8
Wellpath (H.I.G. Capital)9
Global Tel Link (American Securities)10
YUBA COUNTY JAIL (CA)11
Global Tel Link (American Securities)12
Wellpath (H.I.G. Capital)13

Private Equity

Stakeholder

Project

Jim Baker
jim.baker@PEstakeholder.org
312.933.0230

Private Equity Stakeholder Project
SEPTEMBER 2018

Partial list of private equity-owned firms providing services to
prisons, jails, and detention facilities:
COMPANY

INDUSTRY/ SERVICES

SCOPE

PE OWNER(S)

ACQUIRED

Securus/ Jpay

Telephone/
Communications

Serves more than 3,400 public safety,
law enforcement and corrections agencies
and over 1.2 million inmates
across North America.

Platinum Equity

2017

Global Tel Link

Telephone/
Communications

Serves approximately 2,300 facilities
and 1.8 million inmates in 50 states,
the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

American Securities

2011

Keefe Group/
Trinity Services Group/
Swanson Svcs/
ICSolutions

Commissary/
Food/
Telephone/
Communications

Keefe Commissary Network serves
more than half a million inmates weekly
and 12 out of 14 outsourced state
departments of corrections.
Telecommunications provider
ICSolutions serves 180,000 inmates
housed in over 200 correctional
facilities nationwide.

H.I.G. Capital

2012

Aladdin Bail Bonds/
Seaview Surety

Bail

Aladdin is the largest retail pre-trial
release service provider in America.

Endeavour Capital

2012

Corizon Health

Healthcare

Corizon Health provides quality
healthcare services to our clients at
301 facilities serving over 220,000
patients in 22 states.

BlueMountain
Capital Management

2017

Correct Care Solutions/
Judicial Correctional
Services

Healthcare/
Probation

Provides medical and behavioral
health services for nearly 250,000
patients located in local, state and
federal correctional facilities,
as well as state hospitals and
other facilities.

H.I.G. Capital

2013/
2018

Attenti

Electronic
Monitoring

Global provider of electronic
monitoring technologies to national,
federal state and local correctional
and law enforcement agencies
around the world.

Apax Partners

2017

Sentinel
Offender Services

Probation

Sentinel Offender Services is a
private probation company that partners
with community corrections,
courts and law enforcement.

Bison Capital Asset
Management

2012

Endnotes
1

https://www.ice.gov/detention-facility/adelanto-ice-processing-center, accessed Sept 3, 2018.

2

“Amid Crackdown, Immigrants Are Dying Of Neglect In ICE Detention Facilities,” Fast Company, Apr 27, 2017.

3

Commissary Representative GEO Adelanto job, Trinity Services Group, Lensa.com, Nov 13, 2017.

4

“What happened at an immigrant detention center while ICE officials looked the other way,” Newsweek, Jun 28, 2018.

5
6

https://securustech.net/facilities-we-serve, accessed Sept 3, 2018.
“U.S. officials move to house 1,000 immigration detainees at federal prison in Victorville,” Los Angeles Times, Jun 7, 2018.

7
8

https://web.connectnetwork.com/facilities/federal-bureau-of-prisons-ca-victorville-fcc/, accessed Sept 3, 2018.
“Former detainees tell New Mexico legislators about abuses in immigration detention as county seeks to renew contracts,” PRI, Jul 18, 2018.

9

https://jobs.correctcaresolutions.com/joblist?page_size=5&page_number=1&location=8367489&radius=0&locationDescription=area&locationName=Cibola%20ICE&sort_by=headline&sort_order=ASC, accessed Sept 3, 2018.

10

https://web.connectnetwork.com/facilities/cibola-county-nm-detention-center/, accessed Sept 3, 2018.

11

https://www.ice.gov/detention-facility/yuba-county-jail, accessed Sept 3, 2018.

12

https://web.connectnetwork.com/facilities/yuba-county-ca-jail/, accessed Sept 3, 2018.

13

LCSW – Per Diem (Yuba County), Correctional Medical Group Cos., Glassdoor.com, Aug 2018.

Private Equity

Stakeholder

Project

Jim Baker
jim.baker@PEstakeholder.org
312.933.0230