DOJ’s Private Prison Phase-Out a Challenge for Prison REITs
October 5, 2016 | by Reed Valutas | Commercial Property Executive
By Reed Valutas, Associate Analyst, Commercial Real Estate Finance, Moody’s Investors Service: The DOJ and DHS plans to stop using privately owned prisons create substantial uncertainty for prison REITs.
Recent announcements by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regarding the use of privately owned prisons by the federal government are credit negative for private prison real estate investment trusts (REITs). These actions create substantial uncertainty about the future cash flows of prison REITs.
On Aug. 18, 2016, the DOJ announced plans to phase out its use of privately operated prisons. Subsequent to this announcement, on Aug. 29, 2016, the DHS announced it will evaluate whether its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit should reduce and ultimately end its use of privately owned and operated immigrant detention centers.
Although the DOJ and DHS announcements do not affect contracts between private prison operators and other federal agencies and state governments, there is widespread political debate over the future of government contracts with private prison operators. The political debate centers around the social impact of large-scale incarceration and the financial burden of housing burgeoning prison populations. The active management of prison facilities by private prison companies—in particular, the management of prisoners—is a particularly contentious issue among prison reform advocates, politicians and unions.
