Private prisons announce $1.4 billion in revenue as immigration detentions climb
Private prison operators CoreCivic and GEO Group reported significant revenue growth driven by record-high immigration detention numbers. The companies are expanding their capacity and facilities to align with government goals for increased detention.
Why it matters
It highlights the intersection of private corporate profit and federal immigration enforcement policy, raising ethical questions about the business of incarceration.
America's two largest private prison companies, CoreCivic and GEO Group, are reporting a combined $1.4 billion in quarterly revenue over the spring as immigration detention closes in on record levels.
Those revenues announced Thursday do not include net proceeds of $1.6 billion made by CoreCivic after the recent sale of four of their facilities to the Department of Homeland Security. Patrick Swindle, CoreCivic's President and CEO, told investors on an earnings call that that works out to an average rate of $307,000 per bed.
The earnings — from April through June of this year — come as the U.S. is holding almost 66,000 people in immigration detention , nearing record levels not seen since January, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan research center. Both companies say they're also finding other revenue opportunities, like ankle monitors for Haitian immigrants who recently lost their protected immigration status.
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