No.

In July 2025, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections purchased the last privately owned prison operating in the state, officially bringing all of Oklahoma’s correctional operations under public management.

The $312 million acquisition followed contract negotiations with the GEO Group in which the former owners requested an additional $3 million despite already having received a $6.8 million increase in funding since 2020 without any operations improvements.

Despite the supposed end to state prison contracts, the state made a $74 million deal to outsource Oklahoma’s prison food service to the Trinity Services Group in May 2025.

The contract was voided in June due to a competitor’s protest letter rather than concerns over other states’ issues with prison food contractors–according to an agency spokeswoman, plans to outsource food service operations continue.

The state also recently signed a contract with CoreCivic that will reopen a closed Watonga private prison as a federal ICE detention center.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

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