Full Description

Corrections Corporation of America is an owner and operator of privatized correctional and detention facilities, and a prison operator in the United States. The Company operates 64 correctional and detention facilities, including 44 facilities that it owns, with a total design capacity of approximately 85,000 beds in 19 states and the District of Columbia. Corrections Corporation of America also owns three additional correctional facilities that it leases to third-party operators. The Company specializes in owning, operating, and managing prisons and other correctional facilities, and providing inmate residential and prisoner transportation services for governmental agencies. In addition to providing the fundamental residential services relating to inmates, its facilities offer a variety of rehabilitation and educational programs, including basic education, religious services, life skills and employment training and substance abuse treatment. These services are intended to help reduce recidivism and to prepare inmates for their re-entry into society upon their release. The Company also provides healthcare (including medical, dental, and psychiatric services), food services, and work and recreational programs.

The Company’s customers consist of federal, state, and local correctional and detention authorities. During the year ended December 31, 2008, federal correctional and detention authorities represented 39% of its total revenue. Federal correctional and detention authorities primarily consist of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (the BOP) the United States Marshals Service (the USMS) and the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Its management services contracts have terms of 3 to 5 years and contain multiple renewal options. Most of its facility contracts also contain clauses that allow the government agency to terminate the contract at any time without cause, and its contracts are subject to annual or bi-annual legislative appropriations of funds.

Corrections Corporation of America is compensated for operating and managing facilities at an inmate per diem rate based upon actual or minimum guaranteed occupancy levels. Occupancy rates for a particular facility are low when first opened or when expansions are first available. However, beyond the start-up period, which ranges from 90 to 180 days, the occupancy rate tends to stabilize. During 2008, the average compensated occupancy of its facilities, based on rated capacity, was 95.5% for all of the facilities the Company owned or managed, exclusive of facilities, where operations have been discontinued. As a result of bed development, Corrections Corporation of America had seven facilities that provided us with approximately 6,200 available beds as of December 31, 2008, including primarily 2,232 beds at our new Adams County Correctional Center in Mississippi, as well as expansion beds at three of our Oklahoma facilities, two of our Colorado facilities, and our Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility located in Mississippi.

The Company provides a variety of rehabilitative and educational programs at its facilities. It also offers vocational training to inmates who lack marketable job skills. Its craft vocational training programs are accredited by the National Center for Construction Education and Research. This organization provides training curriculum and establishes industry standards for over 4,000 construction and trade organizations in the United States and several foreign countries. In addition, the Company offers life skills transition planning programs that provide inmates with job search skills, health education, financial responsibility training, parenting training, and other skills associated with becoming productive citizens. At many of its facilities, the Company also offers counseling, education and/or treatment to inmates with alcohol and drug abuse problems through its Strategies for Change and Residential Drug Addictions Treatment Program (RDAP). The Company provides transportation services to governmental agencies through its wholly owned subsidiary, TransCor America, LLC (TransCor). Through a hub-and-spoke network, TransCor provides nationwide coverage to federal, state and local agencies across the United States.s

The Company competes with GEO Group, Inc., Cornell Companies, Inc, and Management and Training Corporation.