The Detention of Poor Immigrant Mothers and Children are Money-Making Hustle for Private Prisons
By Ester Yu-Hsi Lee, ThinkProgress.org – During separate conference calls to talk about earnings reports, two of the country’s largest for-profit private prisons indicated that they saw their profits soar from holding immigrant mothers and children in detention centers across the country.
Revenues increased during the first quarter of 2016 for both the Corrections Corp. of America and GEO Group, executives told shareholders on conference calls.
CCA saw a revenue of $447.4 million, a 5 percent increase from last year’s first quarter. The company’s press release attributed much of that increase to a federal contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
“We are pleased with our first quarter financial performance, which exceeded our first quarter guidance…” CCA chief executive officer Damon Hininger said in a press release. “Our financial performance was driven primarily by stronger than anticipated demand from our federal partners, most notably Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
