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Private prison giant GEO Group appeals to the powers of the federal government and property rights to allow continued operation in Tacoma, Washington.

The Trump administration’s policies will be benefiting the bank accounts of the country’s largest for-profit prison operators and echo correctional policies that have been controversial since the ’80s.

The administration’s attitude has helped to make the last year one of the most promising for the private prison industry, but local initiatives continue to combat its expansion at home.

Private prisons were still on notice at the start of the year, but they quickly regained their footing. Here are some developments from this year in privatized incarceration.

Divesting from companies at the municipal level is a city-wide form of direct action that, this summer, New York City used this against for-profit prisons.

The task of enforcing our country’s immigration laws has become a sprawling responsibility in the United States, and the mechanisms by which non-citizens are detained and removed are facing a lot of strain: practically, financially, and socially.

Developments in the last three years have injected drama into the lives of private prison companies, but the criticisms of watchdogs in and out of government proved no match for correctional companies in support of the new Presidential administration.

Private prisons have received increased scrutiny in the last few years, and Inspectors General and independent investigations have found more than a few questionable habits behind one of the government’s top contracting agents.

Though challenges have been brought successfully in four states where private prisons operate, federal public records law remains inapplicable to the operations of for-profit prisons.