Florida’s private prisons are run by three companies — The GEO Group, CoreCivic, and Management and Training Corporation — operating seven facilities under contracts governed by Chapter 957 of the Florida Statutes. Every contract must save the state at least 7 percent compared to running a comparable public facility, and the Department of Management Services oversees compliance while the Florida Department of Corrections decides which inmates go where.
Who Operates Florida’s Private Prisons
The GEO Group, headquartered in Boca Raton, holds the largest share of the state’s private prison business. It manages Blackwater River Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility, South Bay Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility, Moore Haven Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility, and Graceville Correctional and Rehabilitation Facility. Blackwater River received reaccreditation in 2024, and South Bay houses up to 1,948 inmates.
CoreCivic, based in Tennessee, operates the Lake City Correctional Facility in Columbia County. Management and Training Corporation runs the Gadsden Correctional Facility, which houses female inmates. Each company employs all on-site personnel and handles its own human resources, insurance, and logistics independently from the state.
Where the Facilities Are Located
The private facilities sit across several regions of the state. Blackwater River is in Santa Rosa County in the panhandle, with roughly 2,000 beds. South Bay is in Palm Beach County. Graceville is in Jackson County and houses medium-custody inmates. Moore Haven sits in Glades County. Bay Correctional Facility is also in the panhandle, and Gadsden Correctional Facility in Gadsden County serves as the primary private facility for female inmates. Many of these sites were built more recently than Florida’s older state institutions and include modern surveillance systems, self-contained medical clinics, dining halls, and vocational programs.
How the Contracts Work
Florida pays private operators a per-diem rate for each inmate, calculated separately for adult males, youthful offender males, and females.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 957.07 – Cost-Saving Requirements Contracts typically guarantee a rate based on 90 percent of a facility’s capacity, with a lower rate for inmates beyond that threshold.
Every contract must go through a competitive solicitation, and the state can only award it to the contractor found “most qualified” based on experience, management personnel, and ability to comply with applicable laws and national correctional standards.2The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 957.04 – Contract Requirements The contractor pays for its own staff, maintains the physical plant, and provides medical, dental, psychological, educational, and vocational services at a level at least equal to what the Department of Corrections provides in comparable state-run facilities. Contractors must also carry insurance and indemnify the state against liability, including civil rights claims.
The 7 Percent Cost Savings Rule
Florida cannot enter a private prison contract unless the department determines it will save the state at least 7 percent compared to what a similar publicly operated facility would cost. The Auditor General must certify that these savings are real, based on actual construction and operating costs at comparable state-run facilities of similar size, type, and location.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 957.07 – Cost-Saving Requirements
The calculation pulls in all per-diem cost components from comparable state facilities, including central administrative costs. Services other government agencies provide at no direct charge still get assigned an equivalent cost and factored in. On the private side, the contractor’s projected tax payments to state and local governments count as savings, and so does the cost of each on-site contract monitor.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 957.07 – Cost-Saving Requirements
Whether those projected savings show up in practice has long been contested. State analyses have found that differences in the programs offered by public and private prisons make reliable cost comparisons difficult, and the Department of Corrections has at times disputed the methodology used to calculate projected savings.3Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. Correctional Privatization
Which Inmates Go to Private Facilities
The Florida Department of Corrections holds sole authority over which inmates are transferred to private facilities. Classification begins at a state reception center, where staff evaluate each person’s criminal history, behavior, and needs.
State law requires the department to fill each private facility to between 90 and 100 percent of its contracted capacity, and the inmates transferred must represent a cross-section of the general inmate population at the most comparable state-run facility, based on custody grade or offense of conviction.4The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 957.08 – Prisoners The mix at a private prison should resemble what you would find at a similar state prison, not a hand-picked easier population.
Some populations rarely land in private placement. Inmates with severe chronic medical conditions or serious mental health needs typically stay in state-run institutions with specialized care infrastructure. Those with a history of escape attempts or the highest security classifications also tend to remain under direct state custody.
How the State Monitors Private Prisons
The Department of Management Services oversees Florida’s private prison contracts through its Bureau of Private Prison Monitoring.5Florida Auditor General. Department of Management Services – Oversight of Private Correctional Facilities Each facility has a full-time contract monitor appointed and supervised by the department. The private operator reimburses the state for the monitor’s salary and expenses and provides office space at the facility, and the monitor has unlimited access to the entire site.2The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 957.04 – Contract Requirements
Through monthly and quarterly reviews, monitors evaluate performance across a standard set of indicators covering inmate classification, grievance handling, healthcare, mental health services, vocational programs, employee training, safety, and security.5Florida Auditor General. Department of Management Services – Oversight of Private Correctional Facilities When a contractor falls short, the state can impose financial penalties or liquidated damages.
Florida law also requires every private prison contract to demand American Correctional Association accreditation, a nationwide voluntary system that applies the same standards to state, federal, county, and private facilities.2The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 957.04 – Contract Requirements Accreditation lasts three years, with annual certification statements and possible monitoring visits in between.
What Audits Have Found
State audits have repeatedly flagged serious problems. A Department of Management Services audit found that GEO Group did not maintain adequate security staffing at Graceville for two separate three-month periods and failed to properly maintain the fire safety system for three months. At Gadsden, the audit found that MTC did not follow up on maintenance issues for 17 months and could not demonstrate that key security personnel had received required training for a five-month stretch.
An earlier OPPAGA review documented lost or never-completed physician-ordered laboratory tests, delays of up to five months in filing medical records, unsanitary infirmary conditions, and nursing staff vacancies. The same report found that most contract monitors stationed at private prisons had limited experience and training in corrections operations, and the department had not provided them with training in prison safety and security techniques, inmate manipulation resistance, defensive tactics, hostage procedures, or contraband detection.6Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. While DMS Has Improved Monitoring, It Needs to Strengthen Private Prison Oversight
Legal Rights of Inmates Held in Private Facilities
Inmates housed in private prisons keep the same constitutional protections as those in state-run facilities. The Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment applies regardless of who runs the building.
One legal difference cuts in inmates’ favor. The U.S. Supreme Court held in Richardson v. McKnight that private prison guards are not entitled to qualified immunity from civil rights lawsuits under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.7Legal Information Institute. Richardson v. McKnight Qualified immunity is the legal shield that often protects government employees from personal liability even when they violate constitutional rights, and private prison employees don’t get it. Inmates who suffer constitutional violations in a private Florida facility face a lower hurdle to bringing their claims to trial than inmates suing state employees. Florida’s contracts also require the contractor to indemnify the state against civil rights claims, so the private company, not state taxpayers, bears the financial exposure when lawsuits succeed.2The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 957.04 – Contract Requirements
Do Private Prisons Produce Different Outcomes
A Florida-specific study analyzed recidivism among inmates released from private versus public state prisons, using both re-offense and re-imprisonment as measurements and controlling for 17 variables. The results showed no significant differences in recidivism rates for adult males or youthful male offenders. Among adult female offenders, only 1 of 12 comparisons showed a significant reduction in recidivism for private-facility releases. Overall, just 1 out of 36 comparisons produced a statistically significant finding favoring private prisons.8Office of Justice Programs. Recidivism: An Analysis of Public and Private State Prison Releases in Florida Florida’s private prisons produce outcomes roughly comparable to their state-run counterparts, which pushes the policy debate toward cost, oversight, and accountability rather than rehabilitation.