Stockholders Equity - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)	3 Months Ended	1 Months Ended		3 Months Ended		12 Months Ended	3 Months Ended				12 Months Ended		3 Months Ended		12 Months Ended	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2013	Apr. 30, 2013 Dividend Declared	Apr. 30, 2013 Dividend Declared Maximum	Mar. 31, 2013 Restricted stock	Mar. 31, 2012 Restricted stock	Dec. 31, 2012 Restricted stock	Mar. 31, 2013 Restricted stock Officers And Executive Officers	Mar. 31, 2013 Restricted stock Other Employees	Mar. 31, 2013 Restricted stock General and Administrative Expense	Mar. 31, 2012 Restricted stock General and Administrative Expense	Dec. 31, 2012 Restricted stock General and Administrative Expense	Dec. 31, 2012 Restricted stock General and Administrative Expense Non Employee Directors	Mar. 31, 2013 Restricted stock Operating Expense	Mar. 31, 2012 Restricted stock Operating Expense	Dec. 31, 2012 Restricted stock Operating Expense	Mar. 31, 2013 Stock options	Mar. 31, 2012 Stock options
Employee Service Share-based Compensation, Allocation of Recognized Period Costs [Line Items]
Dividend declared		$ 675,000,000
Dividend declared per share	$ 0.53	$ 6.63
Dividend declared payment date		May 20, 2013
Dividend declared record date		Apr. 19, 2013
Dividend declared, maximum percentage of cash dividend			20.00%
Dividend declared, cash	53,844,000		135,000,000
Restricted common stock and common stock units and stock options issued by CCA to certain of its employees				407,000					361,000		290,000	349,000	46,000		59,000
Fair value of restricted common stock and common stock units and stock options issued by CCA to certain of its employees				15,000,000		9,200,000
Vesting period							3 years
Performance criteria, cumulative period							3 years
Percent of awards eligible to vest							33.33%
Vesting period, continuous service requirement								3 years
Allocated share-based compensation expense				2,200,000	1,600,000				1,900,000	1,400,000			300,000	200,000
Restricted common stock and common stock units remained outstanding and subject to vesting				885,000
Expense net of estimated forfeitures, relating to common stock options																$ 1,000,000	$ 1,100,000
Common stock options outstanding																3,200,000
Weighted average exercise price of common stock outstanding																$ 21.29