In the Public Interest
Democracy, shared prosperity, and the common good
In the Public Interest is a comprehensive research and policy center on privatization and responsible contracting.
In the Public Interest
Democracy, shared prosperity, and the common good
In the Public Interest is a comprehensive research and policy center on privatization and responsible contracting.
Now is the best time since 2016 to invest in private prisons, says Wall Street
Stocks in CoreCivic and GEO Group have fallen about 35 percent since June. But business is looking up.
October 2019
Guide: CoreCivic and GEO Group’s push for public-private partnerships in building prisons
We're concerned that private prison corporations are actively pushing governments to consider the use of private financing. Here's why.
January 2018
Statement on Justice Department private prisons announcement
If private prison companies have their way, poor and working families will be broken up and communities will be further devastated, and already rich executives and shareholders will profit even more.
February 2017
Featured Article
Report: The Banks That Finance Private Prison Companies November 2016Featured Article
Buying Influence: How Private Prison Companies Expand Their Control of America’s Criminal Justice System October 2016The Private Prison Industry Has a Backup Plan
Private prison companies are finding new ways to profit from mass incarceration beyond operating facilities.
September 2016
Featured Article
Fact Sheet: GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America Spend Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Purchasing Smaller Companies September 2016U.S. DOJ Says It Will End Use of Private Prisons
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced they plan to end the use of privately operated, for-profit prisons to incarcerate federal prisoners.
August 2016
For Private Prison Companies, There’s No Value in an Empty Prison
A private prison in rural New Mexico won't close until October, but the company that owns it is already shopping it to other government customers.
August 2016
Featured Article
Fact Sheet: Private Prison Companies Encourage Mass Incarceration by Owning Facilities July 2016It’s Been a Rough Few Weeks for the Private Prison Industry
In the past few weeks we’ve taken big steps towards getting our money back from the shareholders, executives, and Wall Street banks that profit from mass incarceration.
July 2016
Featured Article
Research Brief: How Private Prison Companies Increase Recidivism June 2016Featured Article
Cutting Corners in America’s Criminal Justice System April 2016What Efficiency Really Looks Like in Prisons
In a drive for profit, private corrections companies like Aramark routinely cut corners to lower costs.
April 2016
Featured Article
Private Prison CEOs Continue to Make Much More than the Correctional Officers that Work for Them March 2016The U.S. DOJ is taking on debtors’ prisons
According to the U.S. DOJ, private probation companies have a “direct pecuniary interest in the management or outcome of a case.”
March 2016
One Way We Could Tackle Mass Incarceration Today
If our criminal justice system stopped sending people to private jails and prisons, hundreds of millions in tax dollars a year could be spent on providing rehabilitation and alternatives to incarceration.
March 2016
Featured Article
How Private Prisons Take Tax Dollars Away from Fixing Our Criminal Justice System February 2016Featured Article
Private Companies Profit from Almost Every Function of America’s Criminal Justice System January 2016Private Prison Exec: “We have a bad education system.”
The private corrections industry, which makes more profit when more people are in the criminal justice system, is an obstacle to the changes many of us want to see.
January 2016
Minnesotans Say ‘No Thanks’ to Private Prison Company
Reopening Prairie Correctional Facility would be a costly mistake for both moral and economic reasons.
October 2015
Pope: ‘Money Must Serve, Not Rule’
Private corrections companies like Corizon make up a multibillion-dollar industry, and many have glaring track records of providing low-quality services that harm prisoners, communities, and taxpayers.
September 2015
Pope to Visit Jail Full of Private Contractors with Horrible Track Records
When prisoners experience harm or neglect in our criminal justice system, it is often by the hands of private companies.
September 2015
From the Blue Ridge Comes a Resounding No
With a vote of 'no' to privatization, Johnson County, TN, joins a growing list of communities taking common sense action on criminal justice.
August 2015
Nothing’s Free
Are Social Impact Bonds an effective way to make up for America’s failure to invest enough in public services or yet another path towards privatization?
August 2015
The Prison Lobby No One Sees
Our new report reveals how corrections conferences allow corporations to influence government officials in ways outside the public’s oversight.
August 2015
Featured Article
Buying Access: How Corporations Influence Decision Makers at Corrections Conferences, Trainings, and Meetings August 2015Big questions surround AZ’s private prisons after another riot
The governor of Arizona has promised an investigation that will get to the bottom of what happened at Kingman. Unless he also plans to fully evaluate the costs and benefits (moral and economic) of allowing companies to [...]
July 2015
Abolish Profit Guarantees
Quotas do more to guarantee profits than guarantee public safety. Many thanks to Grassroots Leadership and American Friends Service Committee for their excellent work to bring an end to the Immigrant Detention Quota. [...]
April 2015
Payoff: How Congress Ensures Private Prison Profit with an Immigrant Detention Quota
This report provides an in-depth assessment of the inception and implementation of the quota, with a specific focus on the role played by for-profit, private prison corporations. [...]
April 2015
They Made How Much?!
Over the last three years, the top 12 executives at both corporations have earned a whopping $58,759,145, before accounting for “performance based” stock awards.
April 2015
The Impact of Prop 47 on the Private Prison Industry
California voters passed a groundbreaking ballot measure this month that reduces penalties and sentences for non-violent, “non-serious” crimes. Now, the private industry is responding to these changes in public attitudes [...]
November 2014
This Happens When We Outsource Our Prisons
Our criminal justice system has been turned into a profit center for private corporations. Not only are our prisons being handed over to for-profit companies like Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group, but almost [...]
October 2014
Locking Up Refugees for Profits
Detainees at the Northwest Detention Center, an immigrant detention center operated by GEO Group in Tacoma, Washington, initiated the first of repeated hunger strikes on March 7, 2014. A note from one of the hunger strikers [...]
October 2014
Maggots in the Kitchen
Companies like Aramark Corrections depend on our taxpayer dollars and must be held accountable for betraying our trust and failing to deliver on their contracted obligations. Small fines are simply slaps on the wrist and are [...]
August 2014
Consider the Source
When two professors from Temple University touted a study praising the quality and cost effectiveness of private prisons, advocates wanted to know who funded it. Not surprisingly, it turned out that the private prison [...]
July 2014
Time to Blow the Lid Off Immigrant Prisons
The U.S. prison population has grown more than 700% between 1970 and 2009. We're locking people up left and right, including thousands of non-violent immigrants whose only crime is crossing the border without documentation. [...]
June 2014
The Truth About Private Prisons
Over the years, ITPI has done plenty of research on private prisons and the lengths to which the private prison industry will go to maximize corporate profits still astounds me. Here is the truth: Although they claim to save [...]
April 2014
A Collective Win Against Private Prisons
When corporations spend vast resources to gain control of public services, it takes a village of smart, savvy and nimble people and organizations to beat them back. That's exactly what happened in Arizona this week. [...]
April 2014
Backgrounder: The Cost of Private Prisons
The private prison industry claims that governments can save money by privatizing prisons, but what does the evidence actually indicate? This backgrounder summarizes recent research and state reports related to private [...]
April 2014
In the Places You’d Least Expect
We all know the political shorthand: “red” states vote conservative while “blue” states vote progressive. But these days the deep red hue of Idaho, Arizona and Texas isn’t just a reflection of their political [...]
January 2014
Lockup Quotas
On September 19, In the Public Interest released our blockbuster report “Criminal: How Lockup Quotas and ‘Low-Crime Taxes’ Guarantee Profits for Private Prison Companies.” In a matter of hours, tens of thousands of [...]
October 2013
Death Yards: Continuing Problems with Arizona’s Correctional Health Care
This report explores the grossly inadequate medical, mental health and dental care provided by private contractors in Arizona's corrections system.
October 2013
The Dirty Thirty: Nothing to Celebrate About 30 Years of Corrections Corporation of America
This report compiles 30 of the most egregious examples of CCA's record of prisoner abuse, poor pay and benefits to employees, scandals, escapes, riots, and lawsuits.
June 2013
Good news!
In response to four bids to privatize several state prisons, officials rejected all four, citing their lack of understanding of legal requirements of the prison system, poor attention to inmate care, and proposed [...]
April 2013
Prisons, Jobs and Privatization
This study of prison privatization finds that private prisons impede employment growth in local communities and highlights the significant reduction in prison staffing where privatization is quickly growing and high employee [...]
January 2013