President Trump reversed a Biden administration criminal justice policy Monday, opening the door to more people in federal custody being sent to private prisons. The Biden executive order directed the Justice Department not to renew contracts with private prison firms. In one of his first moves as president, Trump reversed Executive Order 14006, which had eliminated Justice Department contracts with “Privately Operated Criminal Detention Facilities," reports the Brennan Center for Justice. This reversal was something that the two largest corporations that manage prisons and detention centers — the GEO Group and CoreCivic — expected. In fact, on the GEO Group’s third quarter investor call the day after the 2024 presidential election, the company’s executive chairman and founder, George Zoley, said, “We kind of get the sense [that Trump] will reverse all of the Biden executive orders on Day One.” Another sign of an administration friendly to the industry: Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, lobbied for the GEO Group.
The reversal affects contracts with the federal Bureau of Prisons, which is responsible for housing the more than 150,000 people in its custody. The bureau began to rely on private prisons in the 1980s to house inmates with specialized needs and undocumented people. When Biden took office, about 14,000 in federal custody were housed at privately managed facilities. The reversal allows for new contracts between private prison corporations and the U.S. Marshals Service, which still uses private industry to house a significant portion of the more than 60,000 people under its supervision, despite the directive from Biden to terminate this relationship. This end run around the 2021 Biden executive order is partly due to intergovernmental services agreements in which corporations’ contract with counties, which then in turn contract with the Marshals Service. At the time of Biden’s directive, the agency raised concerns out of fears this population would be moved further from courthouses, increasing the time and money needed to transport them to and from court. Trump’s reversal does not affect contracts the federal government has with for-profit firms to run immigrant detention centers. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is responsible for housing undocumented individuals in a network of public and private facilities.