Private prison operators, like The GEO Group (GEO), are often seen as "quasi utilities". Prisoner populations tend to be relatively stable and not really seasonal, so these could be seen like somewhat more stable "hotel chains" with less competition to boot.
However, there's an underlying problem which is always present. Typically, private prisons are what's called "marginal capacity". Their capacity is used when someone else's (in this case, states'/countries') prison capacity is exhausted.
You can think of private prisons like paper pulp makers in the context of a market dominated by integrated paper