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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

 

Commissary and Food Service Privatization Strands Florida Prisoners in ‘Food Desert’

by David M. Reutter

Much has been made of the “food desert” where America’s poorest citizens live: inner-city ghettos and rural backwaters where no grocery store is found, forcing impoverished residents—most lacking a car—to shop for food in high-priced and poorly-stocked gas stations and convenience stores.

But prisons also house ...

No Data to Prove Whether $600-Million California Parole Effort Worked

Results of a yearlong investigation released on July 10, 2023, found that a state-funded rehabilitation program for California parolees started in 2014—Specialized Treatment for Optimized Programming (STOP)—has cost taxpayers $600 million, with little evidence to prove it is working.

STOP is part of a plan Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has ...

Almost $950,000 Paid by Inmate Services Corp. for Hellish Prisoner Transports

by David M. Reutter

On September 30, 2023, the federal court for the Eastern District of Arkansas gave final approval to a settlement agreement under which for-profit prisoner transport firm Inmate Services Corp. (ISC) agreed to pay a total of $949,379.48 to resolve claims that it violated the constitutional rights ...

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Treat No Evil: Centurion and the Curse of For-Profit Prison Healthcare

by J.D. Schmidt

On November 14, 2022, the Florida arm of Centurion Health, one of the nation’s largest private prison and jail healthcare companies, filed a lawsuit in Putnam County against the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), the nonprofit publisher of PLN and its sister publication, Criminal Legal News.

Centurion ...

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