Corrections Corporation of America, now known as CoreCivic, is the second largest private corrections company in the country. Reporting $1.98 billion in revenue in 2019, CoreCivic owns and operates private prisons and immigration detention centers across the U.S. in contract with federal and state governments. As of 2019, CoreCivic operated 50 correctional and detention facilities, of which 12 are primarily contracted with ICE. CoreCivic’s contracts with ICE totaled $579.4 million dollars, amounting to 29% of their total revenue in 2019, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings reveal.
The individual contracts awarded to CoreCivic for detention centers can be massive. In the summer of 2016, the Obama administration awarded CoreCivic a $1 billion deal to build and operate a detention facility for women and children seeking asylum primarily from Central America. CoreCivic was also awarded a nearly $2.1 billion five-year contract with ICE to operate a San Diego detention facility in 2019.
ICE detention centers contracted with CoreCivic have faced multiple allegations of civil rights abuses, including providing inadequate mental health care, guards abusing detainees who ask for medical care, and guards using pepper spray on detainees protesting a lack of adequate coronavirus precautions.
