Property and Equipment - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)	12 Months Ended										1 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2013 Facility Building Property	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2009	Dec. 31, 2013 Facility one	Dec. 31, 2013 Facility two	Dec. 31, 2013 Elizabeth Detention Center	Dec. 31, 2013 San Diego Correctional Facility	Dec. 31, 2009 Wheeler County Development Authority Y	Dec. 31, 2009 Douglas-Coffee County Industrial Authority Y	Jun. 30, 2013 Development Authority Of Telfair County Y
Number of real estate properties owned	55
Number of correctional and detention facilities	53
Number of real estate properties leased	4
Number of vacant real estate properties	1
Number of corporate office buildings	2
Number of correctional and detention facilities owned by government agencies	16
Interest capitalization cost on construction in progress	$ 800,000	$ 1,100,000	$ 1,600,000
Depreciation expense	112,800,000	113,200,000	107,800,000
Number of facilities subject to options	11
Number of facilities subject to options that are constructed on land which is leased from governmental agencies	2
Number of facilities also subject to purchase option	1
Ground Lease expiration year					2015	2017
Operating lease, expire date							June 2015	December 2015
Rental expenses incurred on lease property	5,900,000	4,700,000	6,200,000
Percentage of property tax abatement									50.00%	100.00%	90.00%
Principal amount of bond issued									30,000,000	33,000,000	15,000,000
Number of years of tax abatement									6	5	9
Percentage of property tax abatement, decrease in percentage											10.00%
Purchase price paid for real property in addition to bonds value				$ 100