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Outlet profile

GEO Group

Not a news outlet: a publicly traded U.S. private-prison and immigration-detention contractor (corporate source, not an editorial voice)

Owned byPublicly traded company (NYSE: GEO). Institutional investors hold most of the shares, including BlackRock, State Street and UBS, according to Newsweek. Founder George Zoley remains a senior leader and is described as executive chairman.
FundingRevenue from government contracts to run detention and correctional facilities and to provide electronic monitoring and reentry services. ICE accounted for nearly half of total revenue in its latest annual filing. It also raises money through debt and equity markets and asset sales.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

GEO Group began in 1984 as a division of the Wackenhut Corporation, after George Zoley proposed a separate prison-management business. It was incorporated as a Wackenhut subsidiary in 1988 and went public in 1994 as Wackenhut Corrections Corporation. In 2003 management raised funds to buy back the shares held by G4S, which had acquired Wackenhut. The company took the name The GEO Group in 2004. It has since grown into one of the two largest U.S. private operators of prisons and immigration detention centers. It also runs facilities and services abroad and offers electronic monitoring and reentry programs. GEO reported a record profit of about $254 million for 2025, up sharply from 2024, driven by asset sales and new ICE contracts. It won about $520 million in new or expanded contracts that year, including Delaney Hall in New Jersey, North Lake in Michigan, Folkston in Georgia and a Florida facility. In 2026 it signed a five-year ICE support-services contract for the Rivers facility in North Carolina. Critics, including advocacy groups and journalists, have reported complaints about food, medical care, staffing and detainee deaths at GEO facilities. GEO says it provides humane, cost-effective services under government oversight. Because GEO is a company with a financial stake in detention policy, anything it publishes should be read as a corporate source, not independent journalism.

Sources

  1. Who Owns GEO Group? Delaney Hall Operator Under Scrutiny Over ICE Contracts - Newsweek
  2. Private Prison Firm GEO Group Reports Record $254 Million Profit After New ICE Contracts - Prison Legal News
  3. GEO Group - Wikipedia
  4. George Zoley - Wikipedia
  5. ICE inks deal with private prison company to operate eastern NC immigration detention center - WRAL
  6. Inside Geo Group, the prison giant profiting off ICE raids - Fast Company

Profile compiled 2026-10-07; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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