This quote from America's largest private prison company shows how much the industry fears criminal justice reform

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the country's largest owner of private prisons, has faced renewed backlash against its business practices after the Department of Justice last week announced it would phase out use of for-profit facilities for federal inmates.

The decision followed a damning Inspector General's report released earlier this month declaring private prisons to be less safe and effective than their government-run counterparts.

Private prison companies have been sharply criticized in the past by prison reform advocates for housing inmates in deplorable conditions and exploiting mass incarceration for profit.

Many such advocates, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, have claimed that the business models of CCA and other private prison companies are reliant on high incarceration rates, creating a massive incentive for said companies to lobby against criminal justice reforms.

This quote, from a 2005 annual CCA report found in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) archives, reemerged in a New Yorker article on Wednesday. The quote appears to validate claims regarding the private prison industry's concern with reform [emphasis ours]:

The CCA's concerns about lower incarceration rates are perhaps best evidenced by its branching out beyond the federal government's Bureau of Prisons (BOP), and into halfway houses, reentry and rehabilitation services, and immigration detention.

In a statement last week, a CCA spokesman noted that the company's contracts with the BOP made up just seven percent of its business.

CCA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

NOW WATCH: Here's what economists think of Trump's proposed economic plan

Please enable Javascript to watch this video