GEO Group and CCA Expand Private Prison Capacity as Black Incarceration Soars

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group doubled their combined bed capacity between 2000 and 2009, reaching over 150,000 privately held prison beds. Both companies lobbied for mandatory minimum sentencing and opposed sentencing reform. Because Black and Latino men were incarcerated at disproportionate rates, the private prison boom was directly subsidized by racial disparities in the criminal justice system.