Use and History of Private Prisons in the United States

By Cole Snyder ‘27

On January 26, 2021, six days after being sworn in as President of the United States, Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14006 relating to the Department of Justice’s use of privately owned prisons. This order instructed the Attorney General to not renew any DOJ contracts with private prisons. Almost immediately we saw the closing of private prisons around the country. On December 1, 2022 the Bureau of Prisons (BOP)  announced that they had officially transferred all inmates out of private prisons. This should have marked the end of the 180 year saga of private prisons in the United States; but, the reality is not that simple. 

The first private prison was established in the state of Louisiana in 1844 by the group McHatton, Pratt, and Ward. During this time, profits were prioritized over the rehabilitation of those imprisoned. Private prisons got off to a slow start in the United States, but the use of them skyrocketed after the Civil War. The Thirteenth Amendment banned the use of slavery or indentured servitude, except for those who were convicted of crimes. This allowed prisons to continue using inmates to turn a profit. Prisons were often constructed next to plantations and sometimes even mines. The world’s first billion dollar company, U.S. Steel forced inmates to work in their coal mines during the early twentieth century. Those in private prisons were also subjected to torture methods such as whipping, which wasn’t banned until 1967 when Arkansas became the last state to ban the practice. The benefits of the free labor of inmates encouraged private companies to open up their own private prisons and enter into contracts with local, state, and federal governments. 

Currently, the total population of those held in private prisons is about 90,000, as reported by the Sentencing Project in 2022. A total of 27 states contract with private prisons but still use government owned prisons to some degree. Montana, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Tennessee are  the states which rely on private prisons the most heavily. North Carolina reported a total of 29 people detained in private prisons in the state in 2022, a 91% decrease from 2020. Despite then President Joe Biden’s order, a total of 13,834 federal prisoners were held inside of private prisons. Most of these are due to the United States Marshal Service, a division of the Department of Justice.

The United States Marshal Service reported in the 2024 fiscal year that they had an average daily population of 7,233 incarcerated people in private prisons. This is out of a total of 56,155 total people. The Marshal Service also reported that around forty thousand people were kept through deals made with local and state governments, some of whom contract with private companies. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reported, through a US Marshal Service Freedom of Information Act request, that the real average number of privately held people was around twenty thousand. They also reported that the Marshal Service was responsible for 22% of the revenue of the Corecivic group, a private prison company.

Another governmental agency that has continued use of private prisons is the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), which was not affected due to it being a division of the Department of Homeland Security. From the year 2021 to 2023, the number of people held by ICE doubled from around fifteen to thirty thousand. At the same time the percentage of people being held for ICE by private prisons increased from 79% to around 90%. During the year 2022, the GEO group, a prominent private prison company, made a total of 1.02 Billion USD from ICE contracts. Totaling for about 43% of the total revenue of the company. Facilities whose contracts ended with the Department of Justice remained open and switched over to being ICE detention facilities. 

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order reversing former President Joe Biden’s order instructing the DOJ to not renew contracts with private prisons. Currently it is unclear what exactly this will mean for federally imprisoned individuals. But,  it would be no surprise to see an increase in the number of those held by private prisons and renewed contracts with companies such as the GEO Group and CoreCivic.

Cole Snyder is a sophomore majoring in Physics

Sources

American Civil Liberties Union. (2023, September 18). U.S. Marshals Service’s Failure to Comply with Executive Order 14006. https://www.aclu.org/documents/u-s-marshals-services-failure-to-comply-with-executive-order-14006 

Bauer, S. (2018, September 25). The True History of America's Private Prison Industry | TIME. Time. Retrieved January 7, 2025, from https://time.com/5405158/the-true-history-of-americas-private-prison-industry/ 

Budd, K. M. (2024). Private Prisons in the United States. https://www.sentencingproject.org/app/uploads/2024/02/Private-Prisons-in-the-United-States.pdf 

Bureau of Prisons. (2022, December 1). BOP Ends Use of Privately Owned Prisons. BOP. Retrieved January 7, 2025, from https://www.bop.gov/resources/news/20221201_ends_use_of_privately_owned_prisons.jsp 

Cho, E. H. (2023, August 7). Unchecked Growth: Private Prison Corporations and Immigration Detention, Three Years Into the Biden Administration. ACLU. Retrieved January 7, 2025, from https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/unchecked-growth-private-prison-corporations-and-immigration-detention-three-years-into-the-biden-administration 

Eisen, L. (2019, November 18). Are Private Prisons in Trouble? Brennan Center for Justice. Retrieved January 12, 2025, from https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/are-private-prisons-trouble 

Eisen, L. (2025, January 20). Trump Reverses Biden Order that Eliminated DOJ Contracts with Private Prisons. Brennan Center for Justice. Retrieved February 13, 2025, from https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/trump-reverses-biden-order-eliminated-doj-contracts-private-prisons 

United States Marshal Service. (2024, October 1). 2025-Facts-and-Figures. https://www.usmarshals.gov/sites/default/files/media/document/2025-Facts-and-Figures.pdf 

The White House. (2021, January 26). Executive Order on Reforming Our Incarceration System to Eliminate the Use of Privately Operated Criminal Detention Facilities. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/26/executive-order-reforming-our-incarceration-system-to-eliminate-the-use-of-privately-operated-criminal-detention-facilities/