Private Prisons Face Competition Under Trump’s New Detention Plan
GEO Group and CoreCivic face competition as the agency looks to dramatically reduce the number of immigrant jails by shifting to massive warehouses
A private prison operated by GEO Group under contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in Folkston, Georgia.
Photographer: Mike Stewart/AP PhotoImmigration and Customs Enforcement plans to shrink its network of more than 200 detention facilities to just 34 government-owned sites, according to local officials briefed this week on the plan, a move that would affect longtime private prison giants like GEO Group and CoreCivic Inc.
If carried out, the shift would replace the current patchwork of local jails and privately run prisons with a centralized system of larger facilities, most of them industrial warehouses, owned by the Department of Homeland Security. The majority of people currently in ICE custody are in facilities run by GEO or CoreCivic.