Business Combinations (Details Textual) (USD $)		1 Months Ended
	Aug. 31, 2012	Feb. 28, 2011 BII Holding [Member]	Jan. 01, 2012 BII Holding [Member]	Feb. 10, 2011 BII Holding [Member]	Jan. 01, 2012 Cornell Companies, Inc. [Member]	Aug. 12, 2010 Cornell Companies, Inc. [Member]
Additional Business Combination (Textual) [Abstract]
Cash consideration				$ 409,600,000		$ 84,900,000
Cash acquired from acquisition		9,700,000
Outstanding common stock	100.00%			100.00%		100.00%
Non recurring transaction costs			4,300,000			14,000,000
Aggregate consideration of acquisition, Net of cash acquired						618,300,000
Assets acquired			195,393,000			873,700,000
Goodwill recorded			271,473,000			196,400,000
Liabilities assumed			57,259,000			234,700,000
Noncontrolling interest						20,700,000
Tax deductible goodwill from an acquisition by Cornell prior to its acquisition by GEO					$ 1,500,000