Sodexo

Sodexo is one of the largest food services and facilities management companies in the world. Headquartered in France, it provides dining, site management, and maintenance services to hospitals, schools, military bases, prisons, and other facilities across 45 countries. In the United States, Sodexo operates through its wholly owned subsidiary Sodexo Inc., headquartered in North Bethesda, Md. In 2023, the company’s U.S. operations accounted for over 46% of its annual revenue.

As of September 2024, Sodexo manages six prisons—all of which are located in the United Kingdom–through its subsidiary Sodexo Justice Services:

• Addiewell: A prison located in West Lothian, Scotland, that incarcerates about 700 people and has been operated by Sodexo since 2008. It has repeatedly been criticized for serious safety issues. In 2023, some 40% of people incarcerated at the prison alleged that they had been subjected to abuse, threatening behavior, or assault by staff.
• Altcourse: A 1,100-bed prison located in Liverpool, England. Formerly operated by G4S, the prison was taken over by Sodexo in 2023 and is being operated and maintained by the company under a 10-year contract. It has come under scrutiny for various violations, including in February 2024 after prison staff allegedly failed to provide proper care to a man who was found dead in his cell.
• Bronzefield: The largest female prison in the U.K., located in Middlesex, England. In 2023, an investigation concluded that Sodexo’s systemic and operational failures contributed to the death of a newborn baby who was “delivered in a [Bronzefield] prison cell without medical assistance” by an 18-year-old incarcerated woman in 2019.
• Forest Bank: One of the U.K.’s largest male prisons, located in Salford, England. Built and subsequently run by Sodexo for 25 years, Forest Bank has been the subject of several investigations, including after footage of “naked prisoners pretending to be dogs” was leaked in 2016. In August 2024, news media reported that the U.K. government is poised to remove Sodexo as the prison’s contractor.
• Northumberland: A 1,348-bed prison located in Northumberland, England, that has been managed by Sodexo since 2013. In March 2024, the prison came under scrutiny after prison staff stopped monitoring an incarcerated man properly two days before he died by suicide. In 2017, calls were made for Sodexo’s Northumberland contract to be terminated after a BBC documentary revealed widespread case of violence and self-harm.
• Peterborough: A prison located in Peterborough, England, that has been operated by Sodexo, under a 25-year contract, since 2005. In 2019, Sodexo admitted that prison staff at Peterborough had subjected several incarcerated women to illegal strip searches in 2017.

Sodexo previously operated Lowdham Grange prison for a short period between 2023 and May 2024, after taking over operations from Serco. Within only a few months under Sodexo’s management, at least six individuals incarcerated at Lowdham Grange died, prompting the U.K.’s Prison and Probation Service to “step in” in December 2023. Sodexo was originally contracted to operate the prison until at least 2028.

Beyond fully managing prisons, Sodexo provides food services, maintenance, laundry and cleaning services, “prisoner education,” and labor programs to some 82 additional prisons in Australia, Chile, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Slovenia, Italy, and Germany.

Sodexo’s involvement in the prison industry began in 1994, when the company purchased a 20% stake in Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), now CoreCivic. The two companies formed joint ventures—Corrections Corporation of Australia and U.K. Detention Services Limited—to operate private prisons in Australia and the U.K. In 2000, Sodexo purchased CCA’s stake in these two companies, making them wholly owned Sodexo subsidiaries. The following year, Sodexo sold its stake in CCA following mounting pressure by student activists that resulted in several U.S. universities canceling their food services contracts with the company.