CoreCivic, on the record.
NYSE: CXW, Brentwood, Tennessee. 53 percent of revenue from ICE and the U.S. Marshals. Every ICE contract is terminable for convenience or non-appropriation, by the company's own 10-K.
Sold to DHS at $307,000 to $329,000 a bed, above replacement cost, and still operated by CoreCivic.
Management contract to Dec 2029 plus a 5-year option; $84.7M management order ends Dec 19, 2026.
About $130M a year; management contract expires Aug 2027.
5-year contract to Aug 2031, about $75M a year at full activation; $15.9M first task; detainees from Q4 2026.
About $70M a year (derived); expires Sept 2027; intake followed a seven-month permit fight with the city.
Source: CoreCivic releases (Jul 6, Aug 4, Aug 5, 2026); TIME (Aug 4, 2026); Bisnow (Aug 2026); USAspending award file (Sept 5, 2026).
$1.2 billion returned to shareholders.
More than a third of the company's $3.32B market cap. Debt repaid: $608.5M. Repurchases shrink the float and raise every remaining holder's percentage automatically.
Source: CoreCivic releases (Aug 4 to 10, 2026); Motley Fool. Share price 2.2x from its low ($15.74 to $34.86).
The children.
Dilley (2,400 beds) is ICE's main family site. Since reopening in March 2025 it has held about 3,500 people, more than half of them children. In July 2026 more than half of the children there had been held longer than the 20-day legal limit; some families have been held nine months. On August 18, 2026, a federal judge appointed an independent monitor over children in ICE and CBP custody, citing prolonged detention and inadequate medical care at Dilley.
Source: The Marshall Project (Aug 18, 2026); ProPublica via PBS NewsHour (Feb 9, 2026); Flores v. Meese docket.
Exhibit 11: children in detentionThe record, by facility.
ICE's Office of Detention Oversight found CoreCivic out of compliance with suicide-prevention standards, including 20 percent of people on suicide watch not monitored at required intervals, and imposed no binding correction; less than three months later Denny Adan Gonzalez died by suicide in a segregation cell. 911 audio shows a 90-second delay. A 2022 CRCL complaint alleged a nurse coerced four women into unnecessary exposure. sources
A 2020 memorandum lets the CoreCivic warden decide whether rape allegations are investigated; the San Diego Sheriff investigated none of the seven assaults and four attempts reported in 2025. Representatives toured in April 2026 after reports of medication shortages. sources
Kesley Vial, 23, died after a suicide attempt in 2022. A federal judge sanctioned CoreCivic for destroying cell video despite a same-day preservation demand, the first known spoliation sanction against a private prison firm in an ICE death case; settled March 2026, days before trial. sources
Beatriz Pastrana Candela, pregnant at arrest in November 2025, was repeatedly told by medical and corrections staff that she was not pregnant; she miscarried; still detained five months later. sources
Families in trailers with six bunk beds; more than 1,300 held by February 2026; measles, moldy food, and contaminated water reported; a 13-year-old's mental-health counseling consisted of breathing exercises and warm milk with no self-harm screening. sources
Average daily population above 2,000 in March 2026, among the 19 of 20 facilities over 1,000 ADP that are privately operated. sources
Voice rule: names with dignity; family consent before stories or photos. HRW and PHR sent findings on 39 first-year deaths to CoreCivic in June 2026; no response at publication.
The management contracts behind the sale.
Otay Mesa management order ($84.7M) ends the same week as GEO's Adelanto and Mesa Verde orders.
California City management contract expires (about $130M a year); facility now DHS-owned.
Midwest Regional, KS management contract expires; facility now DHS-owned.
Otay Mesa management contract expires, with a 5-year option.
Source: CoreCivic releases (Sept 29, 2025; Jul 6 and Aug 4, 2026); USAspending award file (Sept 5, 2026).
Litigation tracker.
| Matter | What it decides | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Vial v. CoreCivic | Adverse-inference sanction for destroying cell video after a death; the same-day preservation-demand template | Sanctioned Dec 2025; settled Mar 2026 |
| Barrientos v. CoreCivic, 951 F.3d 1269 | The Trafficking Victims Protection Act reaches private detention contractors' work programs | 11th Cir., 2020 |
| Owino v. CoreCivic | Detainee labor claims in California | Long-running; verify posture |
| CoreCivic v. Governor of New Jersey | New Jersey's 2021 ban on detention agreements unconstitutional as applied to renewal at Elizabeth; the state shifted to health, civil rights, and land-use enforcement | 3d Cir., Sept 2025 |
| City of Leavenworth v. CoreCivic | Special Use Permit required before intake at Midwest Regional; granted March 2026 after a seven-month delay | Resolved Mar 2026 |
| United States v. New Mexico (HB 9) | Whether states may bar public entities from ICE detention contracts; Torrance and Cibola run through county agreements | Pending, D.N.M. |
| ACLU of N. Cal. and CCIJ v. ICE (California City) | Conditions suit at California's largest detention center | Filed Nov 2025 |
| Flores v. Meese (enforcement) | Independent monitor over children in ICE and CBP custody, citing Dilley; the administration seeks to terminate the settlement | Monitor appointed Aug 18, 2026 |
Note: postures compiled September 1, 2026; check the docket before public use.
Who holds CoreCivic.
Source: Tickergate (May 30, 2026); MarketBeat 13F alerts; Simply Wall St; Macroaxis (Jul 9, 2026). Verify against the next proxy before external use.
Open the owners fileThe company sold the buildings and kept the contracts.
Tell the officials who fund the management fees, and the shareholders collecting the buyback, that you are watching.