I am not going to offer any additional comments on this but I came across a blog post by someone named Liam Denning at the Wall Street Journal today. Denning was discussing the private prison industry and how investors should trade the stocks of these entities (Geo Group and CCA). You can read the full post here.

The most striking parts of the post are quoted below:

By 2020, the U.S. adult population should increase by roughly 22 million, according to the World Bank. At the current incarceration rate, there will be another 160,000 federal and state prisoners by 2020. Say average overcrowding is cut from 109% to 105%—by building more beds—and the private operators win 35% share of all new beds, in line with the average for 2005-09. The result would be 76,000 new private beds across the decade, or a healthy growth rate of 4.5% a year. Privatization of existing public facilities would add to this.

There is a chance America’s appetite for imprisonment weakens, but this would require a major shift in attitudes. More importantly, as long as taxpayers are looking for ways to cut costs while still keeping their neighborhoods safe, the private prison operators should be able to lock in long-term growth.

This is what we are up against…