Segment Reporting - Additional Information (Detail) - Jun. 30, 2015	Facility Segment
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Number of facilities owned and managed	47
Number of facilities owned by government partners, managed	12
Number of reportable segments \| Segment	1
Number of facilities leased to third party operators	3

The number of facilities which are managed and not owned by the company.

No definition available.

Name:	cxw_NumberOfFacilitiesManagedAndNotOwnedByCompany
Namespace Prefix:	cxw_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

The number of facilities which are owned and managed by the company.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	cxw_NumberOfFacilitiesOwnedAndManagedByCompany
Namespace Prefix:	cxw_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Number of segments reported by the entity. A reportable segment is a component of an entity for which there is an accounting requirement to report separate financial information on that component in the entity's financial statements.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_NumberOfReportableSegments
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

The number of units (items of property) under operating lease arrangements.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_PropertySubjectToOrAvailableForOperatingLeaseNumberOfUnits
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:decimalItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_SegmentReportingInformationLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration