Do Judges and Prosecutors Own Private Prison Stock?

Writing in Prison Legal News, Alex Friedman tried to find out whether federal, state or local lawmakers, or corrections officials, or judges, or other public employee stakeholders in our criminal justice system own shares of the two publicly held private prison companies, CCA and GEO Group. It turns out that a maze of laws makes it nearly impossible. CCA is incorporated in Maryland, where only shareholders who own at least 5 percent of the outstanding stock of a company may inspect and copy its list of shareholders. Thus, an investor would have to own about 5.85 million shares, currently valued at over $200 million. As a Florida corporation, GEO Group is required to allow investors to inspect and copy its shareholder list upon request. Friedmann, who owns a small amount of stock as an activist investor, obtained the list, but is prohibited by another Fla. law from making it public. “Thus,” he writes, “the individual shareholders who own stock in both CCA and GEO remain shrouded in secrecy – much like private prison companies themselves, which have a long history of being non-transparent and lacking public accountability even though almost all of their revenue is obtained from government contracts paid with taxpayer funds.”