Dump CCA and other private prison stocks now –smart analysts

If business is so good, why did CCA lose two contracts for new prisons in Georgia last year when neither the state nor the feds had enough prisoners to fill them? And why was the private prison in Ocilla nearly sold at auction? Why this year was Gladiator School closed and two other CCA prisons cancelled? And all that was before U.S. DoJ announced today it will “avoid charging certain low-level and nonviolent drug offenders with crimes that carry mandatory minimums”.

Ed Arnold wrote for Memphis Business Journal 23 July 2013, Corrections Corp. of America debunks Anonymous report,

As reported on Monday, the computer hacking collective known as Anonymous Analytics published a blog warning investors that a declining prison population and reforms designed to reduce incarceration rates in the U.S. point to shrinking revenue for Corrections Corporation of America (NYSE: CXW) going forward.

CCA flatly denied the Anonymous Analytics conclusions in a statement.

CCA apparently didn’t dare link to the actual report. Anonymous Analytics wrote 9 July 2013, Corrections Corporation of America: The Dismantling of a National Disgrace,

Conclusion: Strong Sell

The Quick and Dirty

  • Exploding corrections budgets have forced states to enact bi-partisan criminal justice reforms to reduce their prison populations.
  • The US prison population peaked in 2009. Since then, states across the country have closed prisons due to excess capacity and generational low crime rates.
  • Faced with empty beds, demand concerns, and a bleak outlook, this report details why we expect CCA’s earnings to get smacked under the weight of current and future contract losses.

ACLU wrote 9 July 2013, ACLU Comment on Anonymous’ Report on the Corrections Corporation of America,

“The ACLU has known for years that for-profit prisons are a bad policy investment. Thanks to Anonymous’ report, we now know they are a bad financial investment as well. For 30 years, companies like the Corrections Corporation of America have capitalized on our country’s addiction to incarceration, converting an unprecedented prison population boom into big returns for investors. But as states increasingly pass reforms that wean us from our addiction to incarceration, CCA’s profits will dry up.”

And of course everybody from the NAACP to Grover Norquist has been saying for years, “They don’t need prison. Sending them to rehab costs less.”

Georgia is one of the worst afflicted by the over-incarceration caused by the failed War on Drugs, with 1 in 13 of adults in jail, prison, probation, or parole, and even Georgia is passing sentencing reform: it’s law since May Day 2012.

Divest now to end this madness.

-jsq