CoreCivic today released its 2021 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report demonstrating how the company stayed committed to its mission to better the public good through the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the fourth annual report issued by CoreCivic since 2019.

The report details how CoreCivic continued to deliver life-changing reentry programming in 2021 by building relationships with community partners that helped bring educational and vocational training opportunities to residents, including online learning opportunities to keep everyone safe from COVID-19 transmission. These opportunities will help residents succeed in life after incarceration.

The report also shares CoreCivic’s newly adopted human rights policy and goals that will guide the company’s operations in the coming years. It shares how CoreCivic collaborated with community stakeholders and launched new partnerships with groups like the Frederick Douglass Project for Justice to facilitate meetings between residents and members of their communities. It also shows how CoreCivic delivered innovative solutions to government partners like a renewable three-year lease agreement with New Mexico enabling the state to assume operations of the Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center while CoreCivic maintains the facility.

Finally, the report details CoreCivic’s environmental impact and efforts to reduce waste, as well as water and energy usage. It also details CoreCivic’s new diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) roadmap for how the company will create a culture of understanding among employees and create a pipeline of diverse leadership talent so the company at all levels reflects its employees and the communities where it serves.

“Our company stayed strong through the tiresome reality of a stubborn, resurgent pandemic to deliver our mission to better the public good,” said Damon Hininger, president and CEO, CoreCivic. “I’m proud to lead a critically important enterprise like CoreCivic and fortunate to draw energy and inspiration from our people. Our team defines and practices flexibility and innovation each day. You witness it at the facilities, in the classrooms, at the meeting tables, around the neighborhoods we call home, and in the back office.”

The report also highlights how CoreCivic’s cumulative ESG efforts were recognized by Newsweek naming the company to its list of America’s Most Responsible Companies in 2021.

“I’m pleased with our progress in a difficult year, and I’m grateful for my colleagues who take our mission to better the public good to the forefront of all they do,” Hininger said. “I admire their resilience. I admire their emphasis on safety. I love the focus on second chances.”

Other topics discussed in the report include:

• CoreCivic’s nimble pandemic strategy, which led to an aggressive education campaign to help staff and residents understand the effectiveness of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines
• The launch of reentry programs at CoreCivic facilities across the country, including a culinary arts program at Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Ohio, a computer coding program at Red Rock Correctional Center in Colorado, and a carpentry program at Crowley County Correctional Facility in Colorado
• Community networking programs to help residents, like those at Cheyenne Transitional Center in Wyoming, connect with community members and match them with jobs
• The CoreCivic Foundation’s commitment of $700,000 to organizations that are expanding access to education, prioritizing criminal justice reform, and supporting minority-owned businesses
• The CoreCivic Foundation’s support for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to bolster research by Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) working to identify barriers to opportunity in criminal justice, education, and economic mobility
• The CoreCivic Foundation’s support for the Coalition to Back Black Businesses
• CoreCivic’s multi-year partnership with the Prison Fellowship’s Warden Exchange Program, a residency and online professional development program that enables wardens to share reentry best practices and discuss problem-solving in a peer group format
• CoreCivic’s advocacy for state and federal legislation aimed at reducing recidivism and removing barriers to reentry for returning citizens — including 700 letters of support for 24 bills covering reentry policy areas in Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Washington, and the U.S. Congress