GEO Group's Aurora ICE Facility Faces Uncertain Financial Future
In a late-October earnings call, George Zoley, CEO of private-prison company GEO Group, responded to a question regarding whether the company will continue to get business from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, regardless of who won the presidential race.
"As long as there's a policy of border enforcement, we will...continue to play a role in supporting that policy," Zoley responded.
But recent Biden administration actions, as well as the just-announced fourth-quarter financial results for GEO Group, which runs the Aurora Contract Detention Facility under a contract with ICE, raise more questions.
"The tone of the statement very clearly expressed concerns about the private-prison companies' financial stability in light of the shifting political climate," César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a University of Denver law professor, says of a recent release from GEO Group announcing fourth-quarter results.
Those concerns stem, in part, from the Biden administration's announcement that it will stop renewing Department of Justice contracts with private-prison companies. Contracts with the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons represented one-quarter of GEO Group's revenue at the end of 2020.
Read more: https://www.westword.com/news/geo-group-facing-revenue-hit-from-loss-of-federal-contracts-11904857