When we first began to look at the phenomenon of immigrant detention in the United States, the obvious step to take as investigative journalists was to follow the money. We found that the trail of taxpayer dollars led primarily to the Corrections Corporation of America, a company that had been on the brink of bankruptcy as recently as 2001. Our desire was to present a picture of how the nation’s largest private prison company had partnered with the federal government to detain close to a million undocumented immigrants until they were deported, and in the process fill their empty beds and increase revenue by X percent. CCA now has close to 10,000 new beds under development in anticipation of continued demand.

Our methodology included traveling to Texas to observe detention centers in Laredo, Houston and Taylor, Texas, and talk to a CCA official at the Houston Processing Center. We also spoke with immigrants and their families about being in the facilities, and opponents of the privatization of immigrant detention. We FOIA’d a list of CCA contracts with ICE and the US Marshals Service, and found them to be of minimal use when the financial amounts on the documents were redacted, as were the contracts shared with us by TRAC from a similar FOIA. We read through testimony of ICE and CCA officials before congressional appropriations committees, CCA quarterly and annual reports, 10-K and 8-K filings, DEF 14-A, and transcripts of the CCA executives conference calls with financial analysts. We examined lobbying reports the company filed in the Senate’s disclosure database.

Thank You's in no specific order: Bob Libal, Asif Baksh, Matthew Gossage, Luisanna Santibanez, Judy Greene, Dustin Ogdin, Jose Orta, Tish Stringer, Sheila Coronel, Jim Mintz, John Tarleton, Sean Crowley, Mayra Moreno, Jim Ellinger, Rob Block, Deepa Fernandes, Forrest Wilder, Meredith Kolodner, Susan Long of TRAC, Katherine A. Day of OFDT, Ryan Law of ICE, NYCinteractive.org team, 2008 Stabile Fellows, our parents and everyone else who helped us along the way.

About The Reporters

Renee Feltz (left) and Stokely Baksh (right) are graduate journalism students at Columbia University and fellows in the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. This summer, they will be working with News21, a Carnegie-Knight news initiative.

Renee Feltz helped found the news department at Pacifica radio station KPFT in Houston, Texas, where her focus on under-represented voices led her to interview more than 25 men and women on Texas Death Row. Before leaving Texas to study investigative reporting she covered the
proliferation of immigrant detention centers. Renee has also reported for the BBC, CBC, FSRN, Air America, Making Contact, The Texas Observer, Indymedia, and The Indypendent.

Stokely Baksh is a Washington, D.C.-based reporter who has spent many mornings in Congress. Prior to graduate school at Columbia where she studies investigative reporting and new media, Baksh worked for the non-profit journalism organization Center for Public Integrity, newswire United Press International under the technology and business desks, and Indymedia. At age 20, she went to Guyana, not to be mistaken for Ghana, where she researched death squads. You can visit her personal site at http://www.stokelybaksh.com.

Contact Us

Stokely Baksh
Stokelyb[at]gmail[dot]com

Renee Feltz
ReneeFeltz[at]gmail[dot]com