Reports

Private Equity Profits from Incarceration: 2023 Fact Sheet

March 31, 2023

See the Fact Sheet.

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.

Read the fact sheet.

CompanyIndustryScopePE OwnerYear Acquired
Keefe / TKC HoldingsCommissaryTrinity Services Group: Food services for 190,000 incarcerated people in 40 states. Keefe: Commissary for 650,000 incarcerated people in the U.S.HIG Capital2012
ICSolutionsCommunicationsPhone call services for 300,000 incarcerated people in the U.S.HIG Capital2012
WellpathHealthcareMedical services for more than 275,000 incarcerated people in nearly 300 facilities in the U.S. and 6,500 people in Australia.HIG Capital2013
ViaPath / GTL / TelMateCommunicationsCommunications and payment services in nearly 2,000 local, state, and federal facilities in U.S. states, DC, and Puerto Rico.American Securities2011
Securus / JpayCommunicationsCommunications services for more than 1.2 million incarcerated people in 3,400 facilities across North America.Platinum Equity2017
YesCare / CorizonHealthcareMedical services for 50,000 incarcerated people in 52 U.S. facilities.Flacks Group2020
Attenti / G4SCommunicationsElectronic monitoring of 200,000 people per year through 400 monitoring programs worldwide.Warburg Pincus2021, 2018
Sentinel Offender ServicesProbationPrivate probation company that partners with community corrections, courts and law enforcement in the U.S.Bison Capital Asset Management, St Cloud Capital2012, 2022
SCRAM SystemsCommunicationsLocation and alcohol monitoring systems for U.S. courts and law enforcement agencies.The Riverside Company2021
IMS Correctional HealthcareHealthcareMedical provider for North Carolina detention facilities.Full Guard Capital2020
Combined Public CommunicationsCommunicationsPhone call services for 41,000 people in more than 325 county detention facilities across the U.S.Argosy Private Equity2016
Layton ConstructionConstructionConstruction company with a portfolio of 14 detention projects across Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming.Saybrook Capital2017

 

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