End of an Era: Oklahoma Officially Ends Use of Private Prisons

Oklahoma just closed the chapter on private prisons.

In July 2025 the state bought the former GEO Lawton Correctional Facility - now Red Rock Correctional Center - bringing the last for‑profit prison under state control.

The era of incarceration for profit in Oklahoma has come to an end.

This is one of the few issues most Oklahomans, regardless of political or religious views, could agree on across the board, for the most part. Those benefiting from the Sooner State prison culture fought it until the bitter end.

It wasn’t a sudden move.

Oklahoma was once a legacy-setter. The Great Plains prison in Hinton opened in 1991, Lawton in 1998, and for decades the state leaned heavily into private prison contracts with GEO Group and CoreCivic.

At its peak, private facilities held thousands of inmates and cost taxpayers immeasurably more money in funding each year.

It wasn't until the mounting problems could no longer be ignored. Chronic violence, understaffing, inmate deaths, and nearly zero transparency exposed what critics had warned us about for years.

Private prisons promise efficiency and cost‑savings, but deliver chaos and hidden costs. Cimarron Correctional saw a deadly riot in 2015 that killed four inmates, and the Lawton facility has had one of the worst reputations in the state for a very long time.

Public pressure and reforms such as State Questions 780 and 781 in the late 2010s began to shrink the prison population. As contracts expired and operations faltered, the state reclaimed facilities.

• Great Plains in 2023
• Davis in 2023‑24
• Lawton now in 2025

When GEO sought a $3 million per‑diem increase in early 2024, the governor refused, and the Department of Corrections started planning the takeover.

Privatization of our prison system never delivered on the promise of savings. In fact, audits showed no significant cost advantage once lawsuit settlements, violence, emergency interventions, and staffing training costs were added up.

A glaring contradiction. 

Private prisons rely on keeping cells filled with bodies. That directly contradicts the criminal justice reform goals to reduce incarceration rates.

Under state control, the facility will be subject to transparency laws, oversight, and will be free from the pressure of Wall Street.

Oklahoma DOC leadership has said this shift will allow more rehabilitation programming and steadier staffing, though critics caution that staffing shortages and facility maintenance.

Ending private prisons won’t solve Oklahoma’s incarceration crisis overnight, but it cuts off a major profit motive and dismantles one of the most entrenched private corrections systems in the country.

For a state that helped pioneer the privatization model, walking away from it entirely sends a powerful signal. It’s not just a reversal of opinion, it’s a concrete refusal to believe the myth that incarceration can be effectively run for profit.

All the same, this won't be a cure-all either.

No government has ever run anything with efficiency.

Public facilities will still struggle, budgets will be tight, and real reform will take years. Oklahoma has turned off the profit feed, and that's a start.