Fact Sheet: Private equity-owned firms dominate prison and detention services

September 17, 2018

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 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.

As the Trump administration has ramped up immigrant detention, many of these same firms and their private equity owners have stood to profit.

Scaled-up immigrant detention brings more business for PE-owned service providers

The scaling up of immigration detention under the Trump administration has led to additional business for firms that provide services to those detainees. Many of the private equity-owned firms listed above provide services to facilities that house immigrant detainees. For example:

Adelanto ICE Processing Center (CA):[1]

Correct Care Solutions (GTCR, Audax Group)[2]
Keefe Group (H.I.G. Capital)[3]

San Luis Regional Detention Center (AZ):[4]

Securus (Platinum Equity)[5]

Federal Correctional Complex, Victorville (CA):[6]

Global Tel Link (American Securities)[7]

Cibola County Correctional Center (NM):[8]

Correct Care Solutions (GTCR, Audax Group)[9]
Global Tel Link (American Securities)[10]

Yuba County Jail (CA):[11]

Global Tel Link (American Securities)[12]
Correctional Medical Group Companies (H.I.G. Capital)[13]

(Fact sheet available here)

Partial list of private equity-owned firms providing services to prisons, jails, and detention facilities:

Company	Industry/ Services	Scope	PE Owner(s)	Acquired
Securus/ Jpay	Telephone/ Communications	Serves more than 3,400 public safety, law enforcement and corrections agencies and over 1.2 million inmates across North America.[14]	Platinum Equity[15]	2017
Global Tel Link	Telephone/ Communications	Serves approximately 2,300 facilities and 1.8 million inmates in 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.[16]	American Securities[17]	2011
Keefe Group/ Trinity Services Group/ Swanson Svcs/ ICSolutions	Commissary/ Food/ Telephone/ Communications	Keefe Commissary Network serves more than half a million inmates weekly and 12 out of 14 outsourced state departments of corrections.[18] Telecommunications provider ICSolutions serves 180,000 inmates housed in over 200 correctional facilities nationwide.[19]	H.I.G. Capital[20]	2012
Aladdin Bail Bonds/ Seaview Surety	Bail	Aladdin is the largest retail pre-trial release service provider in America.[21]	Endeavour Capital[22]	2012
Corizon Health	Healthcare	Corizon Health provides quality healthcare services to our clients at 301 facilities serving over 220,000 patients in 22 states.[23]	BlueMountain Capital Management[24]	2017
Correct Care Solutions/ Judicial Correctional Services	Healthcare/ Probation	Provides medical and behavioral health services for nearly 250,000 patients located in local, state and federal correctional facilities, as well as state hospitals and other facilities.[25]	Audax Group, GTCR, Frazier Healthcare Partners[26]	2010 (Audax), 2012 (GTCR)
Correctional Medical Group Companies	Healthcare	Serves more than 60 counties in over 110 facilities in 7 states, and cares for more than 26,000 inmates daily.[27]	H.I.G. Capital[28]	2013
Sentinel Offender Services	Probation	Sentinel Offender Services is a private probation company that partners with community corrections, courts and law enforcement.[29]	Bison Capital Asset Management[30]	2012