Private Equity Profits from Incarceration: 2023 Fact Sheet
April 3, 2023
See Fact Sheet here.
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 such as CoreCivic and GEO Group, the effects of private equity-owned firms that offer phone services, commissary services, medical services, and more are perhaps more widespread, coming into contact with millions of incarcerated people and their families each day.
| Company | Industry | Scope | PE Owner | Year Acquired |
| Keefe / TKC Holdings | Commissary | Trinity Services Group: Food services for 190,000 incarcerated people in 40 states. Keefe: Commissary for 650,000 incarcerated people in the U.S. | HIG Capital | 2012 |
| ICSolutions | Communications | Phone call services for 300,000 incarcerated people in the U.S. | HIG Capital | 2012 |
| Wellpath | Healthcare | Medical services for more than 275,000 incarcerated people in nearly 300 facilities in the U.S. and 6,500 people in Australia. | HIG Capital | 2013 |
| ViaPath / GTL / TelMate | Communications | Communications and payment services in nearly 2,000 local, state, and federal facilities in U.S. states, DC, and Puerto Rico. | American Securities | 2011 |
| Securus / Jpay | Communications | Communications services for more than 1.2 million incarcerated people in 3,400 facilities across North America. | Platinum Equity | 2017 |
| YesCare / Corizon | Healthcare | Medical services for 50,000 incarcerated people in 52 U.S. facilities. | Flacks Group | 2020 |
| Attenti / G4S | Communications | Electronic monitoring of 200,000 people per year through 400 monitoring programs worldwide. | Warburg Pincus | 2021, 2018 |
| Sentinel Offender Services | Probation | Private probation company that partners with community corrections, courts and law enforcement in the U.S. | Bison Capital Asset Management, St Cloud Capital | 2012, 2022 |
| SCRAM Systems | Communications | Location and alcohol monitoring systems for U.S. courts and law enforcement agencies. | The Riverside Company | 2021 |
| IMS Correctional Healthcare | Healthcare | Medical provider for North Carolina detention facilities. | Full Guard Capital | 2020 |
| Combined Public Communications | Communications | Phone call services for 41,000 people in more than 325 county detention facilities across the U.S. | Argosy Private Equity | 2016 |
| Layton Construction | Construction | Construction company with a portfolio of 14 detention projects across Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. | Saybrook Capital | 2017 |
