GEO Group 2020 Annual Report/10-K from SEC website:

Expirations: “Two agencies of the DOJ, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) and U.S. Marshals Service (“USMS”), utilize our services. The BOP houses inmates who have been convicted of federal crimes, and the USMS is generally responsible for detainees who are awaiting trial or sentencing in U.S. federal courts.  Our contracts with the BOP for our company-owned 1,940-bed Great Plains Correctional Facility, our company-owned 1,732-bed Big Spring Correctional Facility, our company-owned 1,800-bed Flightline Correctional Facility, and our company-owned 1,800-bed North Lake Correctional Facility have renewal option periods that expire on May 31, 2021,  November 30, 2021, November 30, 2021, and September 30, 2022, respectively. Additionally, the contracts with the BOP for the county owned and managed 1,800-bed Reeves County Detention Center I & II and the 1,376-bed Reeves County Detention Center III have renewal option periods that expire September 30, 2022 and June 30, 2022, respectively. We have a management agreement with Reeves County, Texas for the management oversight of these two county-owned facilities. The Great Plains, Big Spring, Flightline, Northlake Correctional Facilities, Reeves County Detention Center I & II and Reeves County Detention Center III generate annualized revenues for GEO of approximately $35 million, $33 million, $35 million, $35 million, $4 million and $3 million, respectively. The BOP has experienced a decline in federal prison populations over the last several years, a trend that has more recently been accelerated by the COVID-19 global pandemic. As a result of the Executive Order and the decline in federal prison populations, we expect that our above described contracts with the BOP may not be renewed over the coming years. Please see “Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Public-Private Partnerships.” Additionally, please refer to “Contract Expirations” below for a discussion of three other BOP contracts whose expiration we had already announced prior to the signing of the Executive Order. For the year ended December 31, 2020, our secure services contracts with the BOP accounted for approximately 12% of our total revenues.

“Unlike the BOP, the USMS does not own and operate its detention facilities. The USMS contracts for the use of facilities, which are generally located in areas near federal courthouses, primarily through intergovernmental service agreements, and to a lesser extent, direct contracts. With respect to the USMS, the agency may determine to conduct a review of the possible application of the Executive Order on its facilities. For the year ended December 31, 2020, our contract and agreements with the USMS accounted for approximately 13% of our total revenues.

“President Biden’s administration may implement further executive orders or directives relating to federal criminal justice policies and immigration policies which may impact the federal government’s use of public-private partnerships with respect to correctional and detention needs, including with respect to our contracts, and/or may impact the budget and spending priorities of federal agencies, including the BOP, USMS, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”).”

Risks Relating to Public-Private Partnerships

Public and political opposition to the use of public-private partnerships for secure facilities, processing centers and community reentry centers could result in our inability to obtain new contracts or the loss of existing contracts, impact our ability to obtain or refinance debt financing or enter into commercial arrangements, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and the market price of our securities.

The management and operation of secure facilities, processing centers and community reentry centers under public-private partnerships has not achieved complete acceptance by either government agencies or the public. Some governmental agencies have limitations on their ability to delegate their traditional management responsibilities for such facilities and centers to private sector companies or they may be instructed by a governmental agency or authority overseeing them to reduce their utilization or scope of public-private partnerships or undertake additional reviews of their public-private partnerships. Any report prepared by or requested by a governmental agency or public official, investigation or inquiry, public statement by any governmental agency or public official, policy or legislative change by any federal, state or local government, or other similar occurrence or action, that seeks to, or purports to, prohibit, eliminate, or otherwise restrict or limit in any way, the federal government’s (or any state or local government’s) ability to contract with private sector companies for the operation of these facilities and centers, could adversely impact our ability to maintain or renew existing contracts or to obtain new contracts.

On January 26, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order directing the United States Attorney General not to renew Department of Justice contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities. Two agencies of the DOJ, the Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) and U.S. Marshals Service (“USMS”), utilize our services. The BOP houses inmates who have been convicted, and the USMS is generally responsible for detainees who are awaiting trial. As a result of the Executive Order, we expect that our contracts with the BOP may not be renewed over the coming years. With respect to the USMS, it may determine to conduct a review of the possible application of the Executive Order on their facilities acquired primarily through intergovernmental agreements, and to a lesser extent, direct contracts. President Biden’s administration may implement further executive orders or directives relating to federal criminal justice policies and immigration policies which may impact the federal government’s use of public-private partnerships with respect to correctional and detention needs, including with respect to our contracts, and/or may impact the budget and spending priorities of federal agencies, including ICE.

Various state partners have or may choose in the future to undertake a review of their utilization of public-private partnerships. For example, California has enacted legislation aimed at phasing out public-private partnership contracts for the operation of secure facilities within California and facilities outside of the state of California housing state of California inmates. Additionally, we have public-private partnership contracts in place with ICE, the BOP and the U.S. Marshals Service relating to facilities located in California. As we previously disclosed, our contract for our Central Valley facility was discontinued by the State of California at the end of September 2019, and our two other California secure facility contracts for our Desert View and Golden State Facilities expired during 2020. During the fourth quarter of 2019, we signed two 15-year contracts with ICE for five company-owned facilities in California totaling 4,490 beds and a managed-only contract with the U.S. Marshals Service for the government-owned, 512-bed El Centro Service Processing Center in California. Although these contracts were entered into prior to January 1, 2020, the effective date of the legislation, we cannot assure you that there will not be public resistance to the implementation of these contracts, including litigation that may result in increased legal fees and costs. Additionally, we and the U.S. Department of Justice have filed separate legal actions challenging the constitutionality of the attempted ban on new federal contracts entered into after the effective date of the California law. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in challenging the constitutionality of the attempted ban on new federal contracts, obtaining a conclusion to such litigation on a prompt basis, or managing efficiently the costs to be incurred by us and the use of management time and resources on such litigation. Currently, the State of Arizona, the State of New Mexico and the State of Washington have proposed legislation similar to the California law. The Delaware County Council has also been exploring how to end the public-private partnership for GEO’s managed-only contract for the 1,883-bed George W. Hill Correctional Facility located in Thornton, Pennsylvania and transition the operations to the government. The Pennsylvania facility generates approximately $46 million in annualized revenue for GEO. 

In addition, the movement toward using public-private partnerships for such facilities and centers has encountered resistance from groups which believe that such facilities and centers should only be operated by governmental agencies. For example, several financial institutions, including some of our lenders, have announced that they will not be renewing existing agreements or entering into new agreements with companies that operate such facilities and centers pursuant to public-private partnerships. Some of these same institutions have ceased their equity analyst coverage of our company. Proposed and future legislation could indirectly impose additional financial restrictions with respect to our business. As an example, New York State Senate Bill S5433A that passed the state senate in February 2020 and is currently in front of the Assembly Banks Committee prohibits New York state chartered banking institutions from investing in and providing financing for privately operated secure facilities. If this bill is ultimately signed into law by the New York governor, certain banks may be restricted from conducting financing activities with us and the secure services sector generally. This bill or any similar bills, regulations and laws that may be proposed in the future may be subject to legal actions and the resolution of such legal actions may take several years, making it difficult to anticipate the overall financial impact on us, our business, financial condition or results of operations. If other financial institutions or third parties that currently provide us with financing or that we do business with decide in the future to cease providing us with financing or doing business with us, such determinations could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Increased public and political opposition to the use of public-private partnerships for our facilities and centers in any of the markets in which we operate, as a result of these or other factors, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and the market price of our securities.

Source: SEC, February 16, 2021