Last Friday, lawmakers made two major moves in challenging the use of privately-owned detention centers and prisons in the United States.

The Bureau of Prisons has announced four awards related to its operations at the Reeves County Detention Complex in Texas. In total, the agreements are worth more than $1.3 billion over the life of the contracts, which could remain active for up to ten years.

In response to our Private Prison Feedback Line, one MuckRock user asked us to take a look at what’s going on with a facility in Basile, Louisiana, and, in response, we’ve filed requests with the town for its previous agreements and payments from private immigration detention giant GEO Group.

Since the 2016 general election, Florida-based for-profit prison operator GEO Group has donated over a million dollars to Political Action Committees and political candidates throughout the State of Florida, support Republican PACs and gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis, as well as a number of elections for representation in both houses of the Florida Congress.

Two of the least populated states in the nation are experiencing enough prison crowding to warrant, by their estimates, the transfer of hundreds of inmates to private prison facilities in other states.