The GEO Group Enters Into Six-Month Contract Extension With U.S. Marshals Service for Western Region Detention Facility
September 21 2021 - 6:55AM
Business Wire
The GEO Group (NYSE: GEO) (“GEO”) announced today that
effective October 1, 2021, it has entered into a six-month contract
extension with the U.S. Marshals Service (“USMS”) for the 770-bed
Western Region Detention Facility in San Diego, California,
allowing the Facility and its approximately 300 employees and union
members to continue to provide high quality services on behalf of
the USMS. GEO’s Western Region Detention Facility contract with the
USMS was operating under a two-year option period which was
scheduled to end on September 30, 2021.
Given the need to comply with the January 2021 Presidential
Executive Order to not renew U.S. Department of Justice contracts
with privately-operated criminal detention facilities (the
“Executive Order”), GEO has proposed various alternative
contracting structures to the USMS that would allow the Western
Region Detention Facility to remain in operation in compliance with
the Executive Order, beyond the six-month contract extension.
The Western Region Detention Facility has provided federal
detention capacity and transportation services on behalf of the
USMS for over 20 years, and GEO believes it is ideally suited to
provide these essential services for individuals facing federal
criminal charges due to its close proximity to the U.S. District
Courthouse for the Southern District of California in downtown San
Diego. Any alternative to the San Diego location of the USMS
detention facility is likely to be in Central or Northern
California. Such a distant alternative location will impact the
timely access by friends, relatives, and legal representatives to
individuals presently housed at the Western Region Detention
Facility in San Diego. As a result, the efforts to keep the Western
Region Detention Facility in operation have received the support of
a diverse group of bipartisan and non-partisan stakeholders.
About The GEO Group
The GEO Group (NYSE: GEO) is a fully integrated equity real
estate investment trust specializing in the design, financing,
development, and operation of secure facilities, processing
centers, and community reentry centers in the United States,
Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. GEO is a leading
provider of enhanced in-custody rehabilitation, post-release
support, electronic monitoring, and community-based programs. GEO’s
worldwide operations include the ownership and/or management of 114
facilities totaling approximately 90,000 beds, including idle
facilities and projects under development, with a workforce of up
to approximately 20,000 professionals.
Safe-Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding
future events and future performance of GEO that involve risks and
uncertainties that could materially affect actual results,
including statements regarding GEO’s six-month contract extension
with the USMS for the 770-bed Western Region Detention Facility in
San Diego, California, and the proposed alternative contracting
structures that would allow the Western Region Detention Facility
to remain in operation in compliance with the Executive Order,
beyond the six-month contract extension. Risks and uncertainties
that could cause actual results to vary from current expectations
and forward-looking statements contained in this press release
include, but are not limited to: (1) GEO’s ability to transition to
a new alternative contracting structure acceptable to the USMS that
would allow the Western Region Detention Facility to remain in
operation in compliance with the Executive Order, beyond the
six-month contract extension; (2) GEO’s ability to meet its
financial guidance for 2021 given the various risks to which its
business is exposed; (3) GEO’s ability to deleverage and repay,
refinance or otherwise address its debt maturities in an amount or
on the timeline it expects, or at all; (4) changes in federal and
state government policy, orders, directives, legislation and
regulations that affect public-private partnerships with respect to
secure correctional and detention facilities, processing centers,
and reentry centers, including the timing and scope of
implementation of the Executive Order; (5) changes in federal
immigration policy; (6) public and political opposition to the use
of public-private partnerships with respect to secure correctional
and detention facilities, processing centers and reentry centers;
(7) the magnitude, severity, and duration of the current COVID-19
global pandemic, its impact on GEO, GEO's ability to mitigate the
risks associated with COVID-19, and the efficacy and distribution
of COVID-19 vaccines; (8) GEO’s ability to sustain or improve
company-wide occupancy rates at its facilities in light of the
COVID-19 global pandemic and policy and contract announcements
impacting GEO’s federal facilities in the United States; (9)
fluctuations in our operating results, including as a result of
contract terminations, contract renegotiations, changes in
occupancy levels and increases in our operating costs; (10) general
economic and market conditions, including changes to governmental
budgets and its impact on new contract terms, contract renewals,
renegotiations, per diem rates, fixed payment provisions, and
occupancy levels; (11) GEO’s ability to timely open facilities as
planned, profitably manage such facilities and successfully
integrate such facilities into GEO’s operations without substantial
costs; (12) GEO’s ability to win management contracts for which it
has submitted proposals and to retain existing management
contracts; (13) risks associated with GEO’s ability to control
operating costs associated with contract start-ups; (14) GEO’s
ability to successfully pursue growth and continue to create
shareholder value; (15) GEO’s ability to obtain financing or access
the capital markets in the future on acceptable terms or at all;
(16) other factors contained in GEO’s Securities and Exchange
Commission periodic filings, including its Form 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K
reports.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210921005217/en/
Pablo E. Paez (866) 301 4436 Executive Vice President, Corporate
Relations
Geo (NYSE:GEO)
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