Do private prisons rely on federal contracts for half of their revenue?
CoreCivic Inc. and GEO Group Inc., two of the largest private prison operators in America, rely on payments from federal correctional and detention authorities for about half of their revenue, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In 2019, 51% of CoreCivic's revenue came from federal sources. In the same year, U.S. government customers accounted for 69% of GEO Group's consolidated revenue.
The companies' customers include federal agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service, as well as state and local governments. In 2018, according to Public Citizen, a nonprofit advocacy group, the federal government spent $2.32 billion with the ten largest prison operators, more than double what they received in 2013.