<SEC-DOCUMENT>0001193125-15-272509.txt : 20150831
<SEC-HEADER>0001193125-15-272509.hdr.sgml : 20150831
<ACCEPTANCE-DATETIME>20150731123629
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ACCESSION NUMBER:		0001193125-15-272509
CONFORMED SUBMISSION TYPE:	CORRESP
PUBLIC DOCUMENT COUNT:		1
FILED AS OF DATE:		20150731

FILER:

	COMPANY DATA:	
		COMPANY CONFORMED NAME:			CORRECTIONS CORP OF AMERICA
		CENTRAL INDEX KEY:			0001070985
		STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION:	REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS [6798]
		IRS NUMBER:				621763875
		STATE OF INCORPORATION:			MD
		FISCAL YEAR END:			1231

	FILING VALUES:
		FORM TYPE:		CORRESP

	BUSINESS ADDRESS:	
		STREET 1:		10 BURTON HILLS BLVD
		STREET 2:		N/A
		CITY:			NASHVILLE
		STATE:			TN
		ZIP:			37215
		BUSINESS PHONE:		6152633000

	MAIL ADDRESS:	
		STREET 1:		10 BURTON HILLS BOULEVARD
		STREET 2:		N/A
		CITY:			NASHVILLE
		STATE:			TN
		ZIP:			37215

	FORMER COMPANY:	
		FORMER CONFORMED NAME:	PRISON REALTY TRUST INC
		DATE OF NAME CHANGE:	19990517

	FORMER COMPANY:	
		FORMER CONFORMED NAME:	PRISON REALTY CORP
		DATE OF NAME CHANGE:	19980924
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<TYPE>CORRESP
<SEQUENCE>1
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<TD VALIGN="bottom">&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
<TD VALIGN="top"> <P STYLE="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">Corrections Corporation of America</P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">10 Burton
Hills Blvd.</P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:1pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">Nashville, TN 37215</P></TD></TR>
</TABLE> <P STYLE="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">July&nbsp;31, 2015 </P> <P STYLE="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman"><B><U>VIA
EDGAR </U></B></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">Mr.&nbsp;Jaime&nbsp;G. John </P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">Branch Chief
</P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">Securities and Exchange Commission </P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">100 F Street, N.E. </P>
<P STYLE="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">Washington, D.C. 20549-7010 </P> <P STYLE="font-size:12pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">&nbsp;</P>
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<TD WIDTH="4%" VALIGN="top" ALIGN="left"><B>Re:</B></TD>
<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><B>Corrections Corporation of America </B></TD></TR></TABLE> <P STYLE="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; margin-left:8%; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman"><B>Form 10-K for Fiscal Year Ended December&nbsp;31,
2014 </B></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; margin-left:8%; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman"><B>Filed February&nbsp;25, 2015 </B></P>
<P STYLE="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; margin-left:8%; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman"><B>Form 8-K filed on May&nbsp;7, 2015 </B></P>
<P STYLE="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; margin-left:8%; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman"><B>File No.&nbsp;1-16109 </B></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">Dear
Mr.&nbsp;John: </P> <P STYLE="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">On Wednesday, July&nbsp;22, 2015, the SEC provided comments with respect to Corrections Corporation of America&#146;s (the
&#147;Company&#148;) response dated July&nbsp;10, 2015 to the comments issued by the Staff in its letter dated July&nbsp;6, 2015 in relation to the Company&#146;s <FONT STYLE="white-space:nowrap">Form&nbsp;10-K</FONT> for the year ended
December&nbsp;31, 2014. For your ease of reference, we have included your original comments in italics below and have provided a response after the comment. </P>
<P STYLE="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">We have prepared this response with the assistance of our counsel and the proposed response has been read by our independent registered public accounting
firm. The Company acknowledges that the Company is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosure in any Company filing and that Staff comments or changes to disclosures in response to Staff comments do not foreclose the Securities and
Exchange Commission (the &#147;Commission&#148;) from taking any action with respect to the filing. The Company also acknowledges that it may not assert Staff comments as a defense in any proceeding initiated by the Commission or any person under
the federal securities laws of the United States. </P>

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 <P STYLE="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman"><U>Item&nbsp;7. Management&#146;s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
</U></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:6pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman"><U>Critical Accounting Policies </U></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:6pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman"><U>Self-Funded
Insurance Reserves, page 53 </U></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:6pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman"><I>We note your response to prior comment 1. Please tell us the consideration you gave to disclosing the amount of claims
provisions and payments. Additionally, confirm to us that you did not adjust your claims provision for re-estimates due to prior year loss development. </I></P>
<P STYLE="margin-top:18pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman"><B>Response: </B></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:6pt; margin-bottom:0pt; margin-left:4%; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">As we noted in our response
dated July&nbsp;10, 2015, our self-funded insurance reserves include accrued liabilities for employee health, workers&#146; compensation, and automobile insurance claims. We have consistently accrued the estimated liability for employee health
insurance claims based on our history of claims experience and the estimated time lag between the incident date and the date we pay the claims. We review the time lag related to our employee health claims on a monthly basis and have found it to be
consistent and short-term in nature, with a range between 45 and 50 days. Due to the short-term nature of the time lag, we do not believe re-estimates due to prior year loss development, if any, would have a material impact on our reserve for
employee health claims. Further, as of December&nbsp;31, 2014, our employee health claims reserve accrual was $8.6 million, which represented approximately 3% of total current liabilities and less than 1% of total liabilities. </P>
<P STYLE="margin-top:6pt; margin-bottom:0pt; margin-left:4%; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">Additionally, as noted in our response on July&nbsp;10, 2015, we have accrued the estimated liability for workers&#146; compensation claims
based on a third-party actuarial valuation of the outstanding liabilities, discounted to the net present value of the outstanding liabilities, using a combination of actuarial methods to project ultimate losses, and our automobile insurance claims
based on estimated development factors on claims incurred. Generally, our payments and incurred expense under our workers&#146; compensation and automobile insurance claim provisions are consistent from period to period. For the years ended 2014 and
2013, management reviewed the impact of the prior year loss development re-estimates on projected workers&#146; compensation ultimate losses as provided by our third-party actuary. We noted a change of approximately $34,000 in the workers&#146;
compensation liability from 2013 to 2014 related to these re-estimates. Given the immaterial amounts of re-estimates for prior year loss development, we presented the amounts in the claims provision in our roll forward provided in our July&nbsp;10,
2015 response. Further, as of December&nbsp;31, 2014, our workers&#146; compensation reserve accrual was $22.5 million, which represented approximately 7% of total current liabilities and 1% of total liabilities. As of December&nbsp;31, 2014, our
automobile insurance claim accrual was $0.9 million, which represented less than 1% of total current liabilities and less than 1% of total liabilities. </P>
<P STYLE="margin-top:6pt; margin-bottom:0pt; margin-left:4%; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">In response to the Staff&#146;s comment and based on the information provided, we believe our current disclosure of our accounting policies
related to our self-insurance reserves provides a balanced presentation of such estimates. Further, based on our analyses, we do not believe </P>

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re-estimates due to prior year loss development, if any, were material to our self-insurance reserves and, thus, would not necessitate separate disclosure. Further, when we have experienced
material fluctuations in the total provision for self-insured insurance reserves we have disclosed the impact in our Results of Operations section of Management&#146;s Discussion and Analysis. In future filings, if we identify material changes in
the re-estimates of prior year loss development or material changes in the development of self-insured losses we will consider the need to emphasize the factors that led to such a change within the Critical Accounting Policy as well as our Results
of Operations. </P> <P STYLE="margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman">If you have any questions concerning our responses to your questions and comments, please do not hesitate to contact me at <FONT
STYLE="white-space:nowrap">(615)&nbsp;263-3008,</FONT> or by facsimile at (615)&nbsp;263-3010 or our outside counsel, William J. Cernius of Latham&nbsp;&amp; Watkins at (714)&nbsp;755-8172 or by facsimile at
<FONT STYLE="white-space:nowrap">(714)&nbsp;755-8290.</FONT> </P> <P STYLE="font-size:12pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">&nbsp;</P>
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<TD VALIGN="top">Sincerely,</TD></TR>
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<TD VALIGN="top">David M. Garfinkle</TD></TR>
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<TD VALIGN="top">Executive Vice President and</TD></TR>
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<TD VALIGN="top">Chief Financial Officer</TD></TR>
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