# Private Prisons

**Published**: 2026-06-30
**Source**: https://gps.press/follow-the-money/private-prisons/
**Author**: Georgia Prisoners' Speak

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The concentration78%

Nearly **four out of every five private-prison dollars** — about **$861 million** — go to a **single company, CoreCivic**, now the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice civil-rights investigation. The rest goes to **The GEO Group**. There is no third option and no public operator competing on price: Georgia has handed two Wall-Street companies a billion-dollar franchise to incarcerate its residents. Source: Open Georgia vendor payments FY2018–2025 (CoreCivic + CCA ≈ $870M of $1.11B total).

Eight years of it

## The money over time

$136M
FY18
$140M
FY19
$141M
FY20
$130M
FY21
$130M
FY22
$133M
FY23
$148M
FY24
$150M
FY25

GDC payments to private-prison operators per fiscal year (Open Georgia) — a steady, recession-proof ~$140M/year to keep the beds full.

Where it goes

## Follow each dollar

Channel 1

### CoreCivic — the franchise

$861Mto CoreCivic, FY18–25 (NYSE: CXW)

**CoreCivic** (formerly Corrections Corporation of America) is the largest US private-prison operator. The DOJ opened a **2024 civil-rights investigation** into its Trousdale Turner facility citing stabbings, assaults, murders, deaths, and sexual misconduct; Tennessee fined the company more than $29.5 million for understaffing, and it has faced roughly 700 lawsuits since 2020. Georgia keeps paying.

Sources: DOJ press release on the Trousdale investigation; Tennessee Lookout / Fortune on the fines; SEC filings; Open Georgia.

Channel 2

### The GEO Group

$239Mto GEO Group, FY18–25 (NYSE: GEO)

**The GEO Group** runs private prisons and ICE detention. Its record includes **deaths in ICE custody**, **$1-a-day forced-labor litigation** in multiple states, and persistent understaffing and inadequate-care allegations. It was a real-estate investment trust until 2021, when it converted to a taxable corporation — a tax maneuver, not a change in how it runs a prison.

Sources: AFSC Investigate; multi-state forced-labor litigation dockets; SEC filings; Open Georgia.

Channel 3

### The incentive built into the contract

The throughline is structural. A private operator’s revenue depends on **keeping beds full** — every empty bed is lost margin. That is a financial interest in **more people incarcerated, for longer**: the exact opposite of what a parole board, a sentencing reform, or an oversight system is supposed to want. Georgia has put that incentive on its own payroll.

Sources: GPS analysis; standard private-corrections contract structure (per-diem / occupancy).

[See the facilities →](/facilities-directory/)[How we verify →](/how-we-verify/)
Zoom out

## The same system, across our data

Every number below comes from GPS’s own databases — click through to the underlying data.

[8,234 people held in Georgia’s four private prisons — Coffee, Wheeler, Jenkins, and Riverbend — as of July 2026 GDC monthly population report See the facilities →](/facilities-directory/)
[99 deaths at those four facilities since 2020, tracked in the GPS Mortality Database GPS Mortality Database (live count) See the deaths →](/georgia-prison-deaths/)
[≈$58 per person per day is what the FY2027 appropriation works out to — the “savings” private operators sell are bought with understaffing FY 2027 Appropriations Act (HB 974) ÷ GDC population report See the budget →](/gdc-budget/)
What the state won’t show

## The numbers we can’t see — and why

- Per-facility staffing and incident data the operators report to the state — not public per facility.
- Whether contract penalties are actually assessed when conditions fail, or quietly waived.
- Any occupancy guarantee or minimum-payment floor in the Georgia contracts.

We publish the verified figures and label the gaps. [How we verify →](/how-we-verify/)

## A billion dollars is buying the incentive to keep Georgians locked up. The legislators who renew these contracts work for you, not for CoreCivic.

[Find your legislator](/find-your-legislator/)
[Back to Follow the Money](/follow-the-money/)

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