George Zoley founds Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, launching the private prison industry's federal contract era

George Zoley established Wackenhut Corrections Corporation as a division of The Wackenhut Corporation in 1984, pitching private-sector management as a solution to federal prison overcrowding. The company incorporated as a wholly-owned subsidiary in 1988 and won its first federal contract — the Aurora Processing Center for the Immigration and Naturalization Service — in 1986. This founding moment established the business model that would make GEO Group the largest private prison operator in the United States four decades later.