CoreCivic is the largest private operator of prisons, immigration-detention centers, and residential reentry facilities in the United States. Founded in 1983 as Corrections Corporation of America, it pioneered the for-profit incarceration model, converted to a real estate investment trust in 2013, and rebranded as CoreCivic in 2016. It trades on the NYSE as CXW and is based in Brentwood, Tennessee.
The company's leadership orbit centers on Damon Hininger, who ran CoreCivic as CEO from 2009, and Patrick Swindle, a longtime insider who became president and chief operating officer in 2025 and is set to succeed Hininger as CEO on January 1, 2026. Their decisions about which idle facilities to reopen and which government contracts to pursue directly shape how many people the U.S. detains for profit.
CoreCivic's fortunes are tightly linked to federal immigration policy. After the 2024 election, the company moved quickly to expand capacity for the Trump administration's deportation drive, reporting roughly $2.2 billion in revenue in 2025 and a sharp jump in ICE business as it reactivated mothballed prisons across several states.
What they control
- The largest U.S. portfolio of private correctional, detention, and reentry facilities
- Immigration-detention capacity central to federal ICE enforcement
- Government real-estate arrangements that lease facilities and services to agencies
- Idle prisons that can be reactivated to absorb surges in detention demand
- A REIT structure (NYSE: CXW) and an active political-donation and lobbying apparatus
Key institutions & holdings
Largest U.S. private-prison and detention operator; ~$2.2B revenue in 2025.
ICE contracts were projected to exceed $1 billion in 2025.
Federal and state governments contract CoreCivic to hold prisoners and detainees.
Key facts
- Founded in 1983 as Corrections Corporation of America; rebranded CoreCivic in 2016 and structured as a REIT based in Brentwood, Tennessee (NYSE: CXW).
- Reported roughly $2.2 billion in revenue in 2025, with ICE contracts projected to exceed $1 billion.
- Third-quarter 2025 ICE revenue reached about $215 million, and the company reactivated four idle facilities expected to add about $320 million in annual revenue.
- Won contracts to reopen California City ($130 million, 2,560 beds), Oklahoma's Diamondback Correctional Facility ($100 million, 2,160 beds), and the South Texas Family Residential Center (up to 2,400 people).
- CEO Damon Hininger gave $300,000 to Trump and affiliated PACs in 2024 and $500,000 to his inaugural committee.
- Patrick Swindle succeeds Hininger as CEO on January 1, 2026, after a 16-year Hininger tenure.
Timeline
- 1983Founded as Corrections Corporation of America, pioneering for-profit prisons.
- 2013Converts to a real estate investment trust (REIT).
- 2016Rebrands as CoreCivic, months after the DOJ moved to phase out private federal prisons.
- 2025-02Signs a deal with ICE to expand detention capacity amid the Trump immigration crackdown.
- 2025Reports ~$2.2 billion revenue and reopens facilities including California City, Diamondback, and the South Texas family center.
- 2026-01Patrick Swindle succeeds Damon Hininger as CEO.
Controversies
Profiting from mass immigration detention · 2025
CoreCivic's 2025 revenue surge is tied directly to the Trump administration's deportation drive; advocates note the company profits from detaining immigrants, with detainee work programs paying as little as $1 per day.
Facility conditions and safety · 1990s-2026
CoreCivic and its predecessor CCA have faced years of lawsuits and oversight findings over understaffing, violence, and deaths; a 2016 DOJ Inspector General report found privately run federal prisons less safe than government-run ones.
Family detention · 2025
Reopening the South Texas Family Residential Center to detain migrant families and children drew sharp criticism from civil-rights and immigration advocates.
Political spending and influence · 2024-2025
CoreCivic executives donated heavily to Trump and members of Congress and the company lobbies on detention policy, fueling concerns that detention policy is shaped partly by the firms paid to carry it out.
Network
- Damon HiningerOutgoing CEOLed CoreCivic from 2009 to 2025; a major Trump and Republican donor.
- Patrick SwindleIncoming CEOLongtime CoreCivic executive who becomes CEO on January 1, 2026.
- U.S. Immigration and Customs EnforcementPatron customerFederal detention contracts drive the bulk of CoreCivic's growth.
- GEO GroupChief competitorThe other dominant private-prison and detention company.
- Trump administrationPolicy driverIts deportation and detention-expansion agenda underpins CoreCivic's 2025 revenue surge.
Why this matters
CoreCivic turns incarceration and immigration detention into shareholder profit, giving a publicly traded company a direct financial interest in policies that put and keep more people behind bars. As the federal government spends tens of billions to expand detention, CoreCivic reopens shuttered prisons and books record ICE revenue, while detained people, including families, live in privately run facilities with a documented history of understaffing and safety problems and limited public accountability. Executives' political donations deepen concerns that detention policy is shaped partly by the firms paid to carry it out.