CoreCivic, based in Brentwood, Tennessee, one of the state's biggest donors to lawmakers, scored a recent tax refund from Tennessee. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Tennessee’s private-prison operator lost nearly $45 million in state payments over three years for failing to meet contractual requirements, but it’s landing a nice windfall as part of the state’s business tax cut deal.

Newly-released records show Brentwood-based CoreCivic Inc. and its affiliate CoreCivic TRS LLC & Subs each received refunds of more than $10,000 for three years of tax rebates after lawmakers approved an estimated $1.9 billion franchise and excise tax reduction in 2024.

Because of the wide range for payouts, the public will never be able to find out exactly how much the state returned to CoreCivic or 16,000 other com

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