Pay to Play? CoreCivic Lands Contract Extension Amid Controversy
Private prison operator is a top political spender
Political spending pays.
Just ask private prison operator CoreCivic.
While some governments are moving away from the company, Tennessee continues to invest in the Nashville-based business.
Sam Stockard reports on CoreCivic’s latest contract extension from the State of Tennessee:
Tennessee plans to extend a private prison company’s contract with an $8 million raise annually to run a state penitentiary in spite of lawsuits alleging it caused inmate deaths.
The pay increase also could come in spite of $17.74 million in state fines levied against CoreCivic since September 2020 for operation shortcomings.
The State Building Commission is scheduled to consider a request from the Department of Correction Wednesday adding two years to CoreCivic’s three-year contract at South Central Correctional Facility in Clifton and increasing the total payout to $212.9 million from $118.18 million.
Stockard notes the company has spent heavily to influence state policymakers:
Since 2009, CoreCivic has spent $3.3 million on lobbying and donations to Tennessee lawmakers, making it one of the 30 highest political spenders in the state, according to a Tennessee Lookout analysis.
The Painful Price of Private Prisons
This post is a slight departure from my normal posts about consumer finance and corporate accountability. A recent story out of Tennessee focused on private prison provider CoreCivic and the company’s political spending. More specifically, Ian Round in the
A 2022 analysis also pointed out that while CoreCivic has a sketchy performance record, the company continues to find favor with state decision makers:
Its facilities have a murder rate four times higher than state-run facilities, a 2019 report showed. An audit by the state comptroller found CoreCivic maintains unreliable data and has destroyed public records.
Lawmakers are no strangers to CoreCivic’s checkbook, 2022 numbers show:
CoreCivic gave $107,490 to Tennessee politicians and PACs from July to September, a campaign finance report filed Oct. 5 shows. In the past year, the company has spent $209,990 on lobbying.
The moral of the story seems to be that with enough spending, any problems can be papered over.
While this story is a bit of a departure from my normal reporting on consumer finance issues, I think there’s at least some connection.
I report often on bad actors in the consumer finance space - Wells Fargo is a top offender that comes to mind. There are debt collectors and credit repair scams.
Of course, none of these personal finance predators ends up in a prison, privately-run or otherwise.
Here are a few recent examples:
OneMain Financial Defrauds Customers of $10 Million
FYI the image link within the article leads to a private page.