Civil Rights

A handful of private equity firms, drawing on capital from pension funds, foundations, endowments, insurance companies, and other institutional investors have invested heavily in companies providing services to prisons, jails, and detention facilities around the United States and the more than two million people housed at those facilities.

While public and investor debate around the privatization of prisons, jails, and detention facilities has largely focused on publicly-traded companies, the largely private equity-owned firms that provide phone services, commissary services, medical services, bail bonds and other services are perhaps more ubiquitous, serving thousands of prison, jail, and detention facilities around the country.