Joe Gomes, Analyst:
Damon and David, thank you very much. Very informative, my name is Joe Gomes
I'm the Nobel Analyst on CoreCivic. We're going to start the Q&A session
here. If you wish to ask a question please click on the lower-right corner of
the video window.
I'm going to start it off with the big picture here, seeing what's going on
today. Under the Biden presidency, just getting your view. He's talked a lot
about ending private prisons, even though, as you just demonstrated a number
of states are looking to expand their usage. He's talked about changing
immigration policies. What do you think, in your best guess at this point -
early point in time, the impact could be on CoreCivic?
Damon Hininger, CEO, President:
Great question, Joe. And to your point, momentous day in our country, I saw
the ceremonies today, and beautiful sunny day there in Washington, D.C. A
wonderful country that we live in, we see democracy in action again with the
peaceful transfer of power - so a powerful day, a powerful message and
powerful (inaudible) coming out of Washington, D.C. So a patriot that warms
my heart.
To your question, we've been around almost 40 years. And so we have seen
Democrats and Republicans control the White House, we've seen Democrats and
Republicans control the governor residences all over the country where we've
done business.
During that 40 years, at one time or another we've done work with almost 30
different states. Today I think the count officially - official customers on
the state side is around 20, but at one time or another we've done work with
about 30 different states.
So what we have shown, and what we have demonstrated is that regardless of
who is in the White House, or regardless of who the governor is we provide a
good, flexible, cost effective, high quality solution to our partners. But we
also know - and this is part of the value proposition is that we can be very
flexible because their needs change.
And to give you an example, Federal Bureau of Prisons the largest
correctional system in the country - the Department of Justice, many - their
needs have changed since 2013. There's been some very, I think smart
proactive changes as they think about criminal justice reform, it has changed
their needs. And in turn you go from 2013 to today, I think they're down, and
it's been somewhat exasperated with the pandemic, they're down 70,000
individuals in their care, which is a very large number.
And so we understand that jurisdictions need to change, our solution may be a
short-term or a long-term solution based on that jurisdiction, and with that
we navigate through that as a way where we can - not only be flexible, but
also know a real estate in our solutions are marketable locally but also
nationwide.
But I'd also say ICE and marshal service - so the two other institutes where
we do business with at the federal level, their needs are very specific, but
also not only the solution itself and the service we provide but also the
location. And so one thing we think we do really, really well is just making
sure that the needs for ICE, the needs for the marshal service understand
geographically what that need is, what's driving it, how can we be part of
the solution?
And so we've demonstrated over different administrations to Bill Clinton in
the _90s, to George Bush and today with President Biden our solutions are
great from a location perspective - good service, high quality, we meet all
the appropriate standards. And with that, as I said earlier, both ICE and
marshal service they have a law enforcement mission, so they continue to look
on either the private sector or citizen counties for capacity.
And I'll be biased, but I think it's very true, we do it a lot better than
cities and counties - we make sure we follow the appropriate standards, we
design our facilities as appropriate but we also add the services like
transportation, space for judges and courtrooms to where we can help the
marshals and ICE be a lot more effective in the mission. What would you add
to that, Dave?
David Garfinkle, CFO:
No, just nothing besides the standards that we comply with. Our facilities
are larger, we provide an easier logistics for immigration customs
enforcement, for example, where we've got a 1,000 bed facility and they've
got - we may even have a court within that facility as opposed to a local
county jail, they've got to round up a bunch of people from various county
jail systems and bring them to court, that's a logistical nightmare for that
agency.
So we provide that value by either having a lot of people in one area, or in
some cases even providing that courthouse within the facility. And again, we
meet the performance base, National Detention Standards that are issued by
the government agency and just because of the official [ph] plan, oftentimes
the local county jails can't meet those standards. So yes, I think you
covered - you covered the rest of it.
Damon Hininger, CEO, President:
One other thing I would say, and this is probably an obvious point but it's
an important point under the Obama administration, which obviously President
Biden, then Vice President Biden was obviously part of that administration.
That administration came to us in 2014 when they were dealing with a real
challenge on the southwest border, they had a significant amount of families
coming to the border and they needed a safe, humane, purpose built facility
that was appropriate for that population. And after a couple (inaudible)
starts they realized that the private sector - notably us, CoreCivic provide
that solution.
So we're very proud that we got that call in 2014, this facility which is in
south Texas just south of San Antonio provides a great solutions for ICE for
the housing of families. And that facility was built day one for that
mission, so it's not a retrofitted prison or a detention facility, it's a
family residential center for that mission.
And so we think under his leadership, under the prior - or the Obama
administration we once again showed the solution, how we can provide a
thoughtful, safe and humane environment to the government in at a really,
really challenging time for them.