The GEO Group announced that effective October 1, 2021, it has entered into a six-month contract extension with the U.S. Marshals Service (“USMS”) for the 770-bed Western Region Detention Facility in San Diego, California, allowing the Facility and its approximately 300 employees and union members to continue to provide high quality services on behalf of the USMS. GEO’s Western Region Detention Facility contract with the USMS was operating under a two-year option period which was scheduled to end on September 30, 2021. Given the need to comply with the January 2021 Presidential Executive Order to not renew U.S. Department of Justice contracts with privately-operated criminal detention facilities (the “Executive Order”), GEO has proposed various alternative contracting structures to the USMS that would allow the Western Region Detention Facility to remain in operation in compliance with the Executive Order, beyond the six-month contract extension. The Western Region Detention Facility has provided federal detention capacity and transportation services on behalf of the USMS for over 20 years, and GEO believes it is ideally suited to provide these essential services for individuals facing federal criminal charges due to its close proximity to the U.S. District Courthouse for the Southern District of California in downtown San Diego. Any alternative to the San Diego location of the USMS detention facility is likely to be in Central or Northern California. Such a distant alternative location will impact the timely access by friends, relatives, and legal representatives to individuals presently housed at the Western Region Detention Facility in San Diego. As a result, the efforts to keep the Western Region Detention Facility in operation have received the support of a diverse group of bipartisan and non-partisan stakeholders.