SYNOPSIS: As the Trump administration's aggressive mass deportation campaign has ramped up, so have the profits of private prison companies. This week, we take a look at CoreCivic, the Tennessee-based company that is one of the two largest operators of private prisons in the United States. It has been in the immigrant detention business for more than 40 years, and last year was one of its best ever thanks to its close relationship with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We listen in on CoreCivics most recent quarterly earnings call, full of rising revenue numbers and rosy projections — and we annotate it with context and background that the executives somehow failed to mention to their investors. We also take a look at the company's history, and its direct connections to the South's ugly legacy of for-profit prisons. Plus: a preview of an upcoming tribute to Mississippi folk artist L.V. Hull.

SHOW NOTES: "The True History of America's Private Prison Industry" Shane Bauer, Time Magazine "CoreCivic Inc." American Friends Service Committee "Trump's Immigration Crackdown Is a Boom Time for Private Prisons" Mother Jones "Biden Administration Fights to Keep Private Immigration Jails Open, Despite Promises" American Immigration Council "CoreCivic Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results" CoreCivic "The Cruel Conditions of ICE's Mojave Desert Detention Center" The New Yorker "Tax Payments by Undocumented Immigrants" Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy "The Children of Dilley" ProPublica L.V. Hull Legacy Center "Mississippi Museum of Art to Present First Major Museum Exhibition of the Art and Singular World of L.V. Hull" Mississippi Museum of Art

CONTACT: Jesse Mayshark [email protected] (865) 214-7764