News Release

    Initiative Builds on Industry Best Practices To Enhance Staff
                        Recognition, Prevention

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2007--Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) (NYSE: CXW), the nation's largest provider of corrections management services to federal, state and local governments and the fifth largest corrections system, today announced that it has implemented a new, more comprehensive suicide prevention program at each of the company's 64 prisons and jails nationwide, proactively addressing one of the major issues facing all corrections systems in the country.

CCA's initiative builds on the company's existing policies, which for years have resulted in suicide rates below the national prison average, and is a landmark development in that it incorporates best practices from across the corrections industry on a national scale. The more than 70,000 inmates under CCA's care (in 19 states and the District of Columbia) and the company's 16,000 employees will be aware of and participating in the plan.

"Suicide is an issue that affects all correctional systems around the world," said John Tighe, CCA's vice president of health services. "If governments are going to continue to turn to CCA as their partner in providing corrections management services - including comprehensive medical to offenders - they want to know that suicide prevention is an issue we take very seriously and a challenge that we are looking for new and better ways to solve. Even before we implemented this program, we were doing better than the national averages, but that's not good enough. That's the whole message - we can never be satisfied until we have zero suicides, and even then we can't let our guard down."

Lindsay Hayes, regarded as the leading suicide prevention and awareness consultant in the corrections industry, with 30 years of experience, was hired by CCA and over the past year has helped to develop an updated suicide prevention program based on the newest best practices. Hayes is the project director of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives in Mansfield, Mass. CCA piloted the suicide prevention program at several of its jails in mid-2006 and launched the program throughout its system in the fourth quarter of 2006.

According to Hayes, national studies reveal that suicides are more common in jails (47 suicides per 100,000 inmates) than in prisons (14 per 100,000 inmates), while both prisons and jails have suicide rates higher than in the community at large (11 per 100,000 people). While the suicide rate in the general public has remained fairly constant for the last 20 years, Hayes said suicide rates among inmates have declined over that same time period.

"Those statistics are important because it shows that suicides can be prevented," Hayes said. "In the past, there was an attitude among many in corrections and law enforcement that suicides are not preventable, that if an inmate wants to kill himself there's nothing anyone can do to prevent it. That mindset has changed."

Hayes said that while suicide prevention plans often vary from state to state and from facility to facility, the significance of CCA's new program is its ability to bring consistently high levels of recognition and communication to CCA's facilities nationwide.

"CCA is unique in that it provides services on a large scale to jails, prisons, and detention centers -- serving the federal agencies, nearly half of all states and many counties -- so the implementation of this program will have a far-reaching, positive effect on inmates at many levels across the country," said Hayes.

    Among the key components of the CCA initiative are:

    --  Suicide Prevention Policy to be overseen at each facility by a
        Suicide Prevention Coordinator at each facility who maintains
        overall responsibility for ongoing facility planning,
        implementation, management, training and accountability, a
        first in the industry.

    --  Ongoing suicide awareness and prevention training for all
        facility staff, including new-staff orientation and continuing
        education.

    --  The production of a 30-minute Inmate Suicide Awareness and
        Prevention DVD to be viewed regularly by facility staff,
        featuring best prevention practices and answers to frequently
        asked questions.

    --  Suicide prevention wallet card to be carried by all facility
        staff with information on awareness tips and prevention
        procedures, focused on the three R's of Recognition, Rescue,
        and Recovery.

    --  Suicide awareness posters at all facilities and other outreach
        to inmates to make them aware of mental health services
        available to them.

"Our approach to suicide prevention is dependent on recognition," said Tighe. "That means that all officers and staff are trained in warning signs, know how to identify at-risk inmates, and make all inmates and families aware of how to get help. We also have increased mental health and multidisciplinary team involvement for mentally ill inmates, especially those who have made a suicide attempt in the past. Finally, we have a mental health assessment as part of our pre-segregation evaluation so we are looking for any issues prior to placing an inmate in segregation, which can be a more likely time for an inmate to attempt a suicide."

Daren Swenson, warden at CCA's Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minn., said that CCA's unit management approach - where corrections officers work a particular unit day after day (as opposed to rotating) and get to know the inmates there - is an important key to success at the facility level.

"Suicide prevention is a big part of our jobs every single day, not just for the mental health professionals at each facility, but for all of our staff," Swenson said. "You have to look for changes in an inmate's routine that are unusual, and the only way to know what's not normal is to know their daily routines. That's why communication between staff and inmates and among staff - including our mental health team -- is so important."

    CONTACT: Corrections Corporation of America
             Louise Grant, 615-263-3106
             Louise.grant@correctionscorp.com

    SOURCE: Corrections Corporation of America