CoreCivic, Inc. is an American private prison operator and one of the largest for-profit prison, jail and detention contractors in the United States. It has been the target of divestment campaigns, FBI investigations and lawsuits alleging civil rights violations and forced labor at some of its owned or operated 82 state and federal correctional and detention facilities in the U.S.
As of 2024, the company, based in Brentwood, Tennessee, was the second largest private corrections company in the United States and the nation's largest owner of partnership correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities. In 2025, CoreCivic expected to make $300 million in new ICE contracts under a Trump administration plan to incarcerate 100,000 immigrant detainees.
The company's reported revenue in 2024 was $2 billion, with a net income of $68.9 million. In 2025, CoreCivic reported their total revenue was $2.2 billion, up 13% for the year prior.
Previously known as the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the company rebranded itself as CoreCivic in 2016. The company said the decision was based on a need to diversify its portfolio, though the rebranding occurred amid controversies over the for-profit prison industry.Kerkham, Chris (February 14, 2012). "Private Prisons Buying State Prisons", The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
Ownership As of 2025, CoreCivic (US:CXW) had 492 institutional owners and shareholders on file with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). The largest shareholders were BlackRock, Inc., Vanguard Group Inc, River Road Asset Management, LLC, and Cooper Creek Partners Management, among others. Public pension fund investors included worker retirement systems in Kentucky, Texas, Oregon, Virginia, New Jersey and Illinois.
On January 1, 2026, Patrick Swindle took over from Damon Hininger as President and CEO.
History
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) was founded in Nashville, Tennessee, on January 28, 1983, by Thomas W. Beasley, Robert Crants and T. Don Hutto. Beasley served as the chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party; Crants was the chief financial officer of a real estate company in Nashville; Hutto was the president-elect of the American Correctional Association, and according to a 2018 Time investigation, ran a Manhattan-sized Tennessee cotton plantation where Black convicts picked cotton for no pay. A founding member of its board of directors was Maurice Sigler, the former chairman of the United States Board of Parole. The initial investment came from Jack C. Massey, co-founder of the Hospital Corporation of America.Harmon L. Wray, Jr., "Cells for Sale" , Southern Changes: The Journal of the Southern Regional Council, Volume 8, Number 3, 1989 An early investor prior to the IPO was Vanderbilt University Law School, where Beasley had completed his Juris Doctor degree. Additionally, the Tennessee Valley Authority was another early financial backer.
CCA, CoreCivic's predecessor, was launched amid the 1980's Tennessee prison crisis, when a federal judge ruled the state prisons "unfit for human habitation" due to lack of medical care, overcrowding and violent outbreaks. Beasley's goal was to solve the prison crisis and make a big profit at the same time.
Early contracts In 1984, CCA turned the Olympic Motel in Houston into a make-shift detention center after contracting with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
In 1984, CCA also took over the operations of the Tall Trees non-secure juvenile facility, for the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County. Two years later, CCA built the 200-bed Shelby Training Center in Memphis to house juvenile male offenders.
In 1989, it opened the New Mexico Women's Correctional Facility in Grants, New Mexico; it had constructed this facility of 204 beds.New Mexico Women's Correctional Facility, Grants, Corrections, State of New Mexico
In the 1980s, CCA officials met with representatives of the Mitterrand administration in France. They did not win any contracts there for CCA prisons.
In 1990, CCA opened the first medium-security privately operated prison, the state-owned Winn Correctional Center, in Winn Parish, Louisiana.
It opened the Leavenworth Detention Center, operated for the U.S. Marshals Service, in 1992. This 256-bed facility was the first maximum-security private prison under direct contract to a federal agency.
CCA entered the United Kingdom in 1992, when it entered a partnership with Mowlem and Sir Robert McAlpine to form UK Detention Services. It opened the 650-bed Blackenhurst prison in Worcestershire, England.
In 2011, responding to an initiative from the state of Ohio to reduce "overhead costs by saving $13 million annually while adding 700 beds to house inmates in the overcrowded system", CCA agreed to buy the Lake Erie Correctional Institution for $72.7 million. This is a change in company policy, as previously CCA had always constructed its own prisons. The purchase was contingent on the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction agreeing to a high level of occupancy under the contract. The state failed to find buyers for many other prisons which it offered for sale.
In 2012, CCA sent a letter to prison officials in 48 states, offering to buy prisons from these states in exchange for a 20-year management contract with a guaranteed occupancy rate of 90%. Many community organizations have criticized the proposals, arguing that the contractual obligations of states to fill the prisons to 90% occupancy are poor public policy, creating an incentive to criminalize behavior and lengthen sentences in order to keep the prisons filled. They believe that these contractual clauses end up costing taxpayers more than state-run prisons and add to over-incarceration.
Later contracts In 2016, the Obama administration provided the CCA a $1 billion no-bid contract to detain asylum seekers from Central America."Inside the administration's $1 billion deal to detain Central American asylum seekers". The Washington Post. August 14, 2016.
CCA was renamed CoreCivic in October 2016.
In 2018, Williamson County commissioners in Taylor, Texas, voted 4–1, in the wake of a widely publicized crisis of immigrant family separation to end the county's participation in an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with CoreCivic, effective in 2019. The T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor was holding imprisoned mothers separated from their children.Texas suburb ends contract with immigrant detention center, The Washington Post, Paul J. Weber (AP), June 26, 2018. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
In 2020, CoreCivic announced it would withdraw from its contract to operate the Metro Detention Facility in Nashville, Tennessee, where CoreCivic was the target of frequent protests.
In 2025, the Trump administration awarded CoreCivic a $130-million U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contract to reopen a state prison in California City, located in the remote Mojave Desert. After reopening the prison as a detention center with a 2,560 bed capacity, CoreCivic met with criticism for not obtaining required city permits and for keeping detainees "locked behind metal doors in cold cells for most of the day". One hundred detainees organized a hunger strike to protest "inhumane" conditions, such as denial of medication, backed up toilets, and segregation units.
In 2025, the Trump administration awarded CoreCivic $100 million contract to reopen Oklahoma's 2,160-bed Diamondback Correctional Facility that had been closed since 2010.
In 2025, CoreCivic announced it would reopen South Texas Family Residential Center, under ICE contract, with capacity to detain up to 2,400 people.
In 2025, the Trump administration awarded CoreCivic a $60 million contract to operate a 1,033 bed detention center in Leavenworth, Kansas, though the operation stalled amid legal disagreement over a special use permit .
Federal investigations After a 15-month investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) decided in 2015 not to prosecute CoreCivic under federal corruption statutes for alleged falsification of staffing records and understaffing at the Idaho Correctional Center (ICC).The FBI said any falsification of records could be attributed to low-level employees with no intention of defrauding the state of Idaho.
In August 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a federal civil rights investigation into CoreCivic's management of the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center in Tennessee. The investigation centered on reports of dangerous prison conditions, including sexual abuse, murders, staffing shortages and high turn-over rates among guards.
In 2025, the FBI launched an investigation of CoreCivic guards smuggling drugs at the Cibola County Correctional Center (CCCC) in New Mexico, where 20% of those at the facility are immigrants in ICE custody and where at least 15 Cibola detainees have died prematurely since 2018.
Ending contracts with private prisons On August 18, 2016, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates announced that the Justice Department intended to end its Bureau of Prisons contracts with for-profit prison operators, because its own analysis concluded "the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services" than the Federal Bureau of Prisons.Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons, The Washington Post, Matt Zapotosky & Chico Harlan, August 8, 2016. Retrieved August 19, 2016. In a memorandum, Yates continued, for-profit "prisons served an important role during a difficult period, but time has shown that they compare poorly to our own Bureau facilities. They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department's Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security. The rehabilitative services that the Bureau provides, such as educational programs and job training, have proved difficult to replicate and outsource and these services are essential to reducing recidivism and improving public safety."Reducing Our Use of Private Prisons , United States Department of Justice, Sally Q. Yates, August 18, 2016. Retrieved August 19, 2016. Following Yates' announcement, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh C. Johnson announced that they would be reviewing the government's use of private detention facilities for housing undocumented immigrants.
In 2017, however, after the change in administrations, officials under President Donald Trump said that both the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security would continue to use private prisons.
In 2021, President Biden ordered the Justice Department not to renew contracts with private prison companies, such as CoreCivic and GEO Group.
In 2025, President Trump reversed former President Biden's executive order banning Department of Justice contracts with private prisons.
Employment issues In 2002 CCA agreed to pay more than $152,000 in back wages to 96 Oklahoma women denied employment because of gender discrimination. A U.S. Department of Labor audit showed women applicants, who were equally or better qualified than men hired, were rejected.
In 2008 CCA was ranked as one of the 100 best corporate citizens by Corporate Responsibility Officer magazine.CCA Named One of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens in the U.S. The national military magazine GI Jobs highlighted CCA as a solid employer for veterans.Corrections Industry Offers Steady Growth and Stable Employment Opportunities In 2010 it ranked CCA as one of the "Top 50 Military Friendly Jobs"."Corrections Provider CCA Named To GI Jobs Magazine's Top 50 List of Military Friendly Employers", Press Release, Corrections Corporation