<P> Federal and state governments have a long history of contracting out specific services to private firms, including medical services, food preparation, vocational training, and inmate transportation . However, the 1980s ushered in a new era of prison privatization . With a burgeoning prison population resulting from the War on Drugs and increased use of incarceration, prison overcrowding and rising costs became increasingly problematic for local, state, and federal governments . In response to this expanding criminal justice system, private business interests saw an opportunity for expansion, and consequently, private - sector involvement in prisons moved from the simple contracting of services to contracting for the complete management and operation of entire prisons . </P> <P> The modern private prison business first emerged and established itself publicly in 1984 when the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), now known as CoreCivic, was awarded a contract to take over a facility in Shelby County, Tennessee . This marked the first time that any government in the country had contracted out the complete operation of a jail to a private operator . The following year, CCA gained further public attention when it offered to take over the entire state prison system of Tennessee for $200 million . The bid was ultimately defeated due to strong opposition from public employees and the skepticism of the state legislature . Despite that initial defeat, CCA since then has successfully expanded, as have other for - profit prison companies . </P> <P> Statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice show that, as of 2013, there were 133,000 state and federal prisoners housed in privately owned prisons in the U.S., constituting 8.4% of the overall U.S. prison population . Broken down to prison type, 19.1% of the federal prison population in the United States is housed in private prisons and 6.8% of the U.S. state prison population is housed in private prisons . While 2013 represents a slight decline in private prison population over 2012, the overall trend over the past decade has been a slow increase . Companies operating such facilities include the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the GEO Group, Inc. (formerly known as Wackenhut Securities), Management and Training Corporation (MTC), and Community Education Centers . In the past two decades CCA has seen its profits increase by more than 500 percent . The prison industry as a whole took in over $5 billion in revenue in 2011 . </P> <P> According to journalist Matt Taibbi, Wall Street banks took notice of this influx of cash, and are now some of the prison industry's biggest investors . Wells Fargo has around $100 million invested in GEO Group and $6 million in CCA . Other major investors include Bank of America, Fidelity Investments, General Electric and The Vanguard Group . CCA's share price went from a dollar in 2000 to $34.34 in 2013 . Sociologist John L. Campbell and activist and journalist Chris Hedges respectively assert that prisons in the United States have become a "lucrative" and "hugely profitable" business . </P>

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