Congress is looking to limit the secrecy of for-profit prison companies, and MuckRock has joined a coalition of 50 nonprofit and public interest organizations to support this cause of transparency and accountability at contract facilities.

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.

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.

In a 1978 memo urging the curbing of the newly-empowered Freedom of Information Act, the CIA compiled a list of six FOIA request topics considered to be the most potentially dangerous to the Agency’s reputation.

MuckRock users come from different walks of life and all parts of the country, united in the idea that government by the people must be a government that is open to the people. Thanks to that belief - and a helpful community of committed FOIA filers - MuckRock users have now collectively filed 10,000 successful FOIA and public records requests.