Robert Crants

Last updated
Doctor Robert Crants
Born
Doctor Robert Crants

(1944-11-17) November 17, 1944 (age 80)
Salamanca, Cattaraugus County, New York
Alma mater United States Military Academy
Harvard Business School
OccupationBusinessman
Known forCo-founder of Corrections Corporation of America
SpouseShirley Crants
Children2 sons, including D. Robert Crants III, and 1 daughter

Doctor Robert Crants [a] (born November 17, 1944), commonly referred to in media and legal records as Doctor R. Crants or Doc Crants, is an American businessman. He is best known as a co-founder of the Corrections Corporation of America (now CoreCivic), where he served as chairman and chief executive officer from 1994 to 1999. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Early life

Doctor Robert Crants was born on November 17, 1944, in Salamanca, New York. His mother gave him the first name of "Doctor", though he has not generally used it as an adult. [1]

He is one quarter Seneca from his maternal side, and he grew up on a Seneca reservation in New York. [1]

He graduated from the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, where he was Thomas W. Beasley's roommate. [1] He served in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. [1] He received a master's degree in business administration from the Harvard Business School in 1974. [1]

Career

Crants was chief financial officer of a real estate company in Nashville, Tennessee. [1] Later, he founded Broadcast Management Services and established several television stations. [1]

In 1983, he co-founded Corrections Corporation of America with his former roommate Thomas W. Beasley, by then a leader in the Republican Party in Tennessee, and T. Don Hutto, creating a private prison management company. [1]

CCA received initial investments from Jack C. Massey, founder of Hospital Corporation of America, Vanderbilt University, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. [5]

He was its treasurer, [1] became president in 1987, [1] and served as chairman and chief executive officer from 1994 to 1999. [1] [6]

By 2015, it was the largest prison management company in the United States. By 2016, CCA (now CoreCivic), along with GEO Group, managed more than 170 prisons and detention centers, with annual revenues of $1.79 billion. [7]

Shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001, Crants co-founded the Homeland Security Corporation with one of his sons, D. Robert Crants III. [8] Crants is its chief executive officer, while Joseph S. Johnson serves as president. [9]

Additional reporting has referred to him by his legal name "Doctor" in industry and bankruptcy coverage. [10] [11]

Name and usage

Reliable sources spanning several decades—including Newsweek, SouthCoast Today, The Nation, and official court records—confirm that Crants’s legal first name is Doctor. [1] [2] In both legal filings and media coverage, he is frequently referred to as Doctor R. Crants or Doc Crants. [10] [11] [12] This usage reflects his given name rather than any professional title, a distinction clarified in multiple mainstream publications. [1]

Personal life

Crants is married to Shirley Crants. [2] [1] They have two sons and a daughter. [1]

Notes

[b]

  1. ↑ "Doctor" is his legal first name as registered at birth, not an honorific title. [1]
  2. ↑ While several publications refer to him as “Robert Crants,” independent coverage and legal filings show “Doctor” or “Doc Crants” as the name used in most contemporary business and media contexts.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Karin Miller, Doctor Crants is no doctor – he's America's private prison warden, South Coast Today, January 4, 1998
  2. 1 2 3 Archibald, Eddie Burkhalter (September 3, 2019). "Key man behind bid for Alabama prisons tied to controversial private prison operations, lawsuits". Alabama Political Reporter. (Doctor is his legal name from birth, but Crants has gone by Robert throughout his adulthood.)
  3. ↑ (February 16, 2000)("Defendants New PZN, Doctor Crants, Robert Crants"), Text .
  4. ↑ Bauer, Shane (September 4, 2018). "CoreCivic and the history of private prisons". Mother Jones.
  5. ↑ Donna Selman and Paul Leighton, Punishment for Sale: Private Prisons, Big Business, and the Incarceration Binge, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010, pp. 81–82.
  6. ↑ Dow Jones News Service, "CEO to step down", The Chicago Tribune, December 28, 1999.
  7. ↑ Rupert Neate (June 16, 2016). "Welcome to Jail Inc: how private companies make money off US prisons". The Guardian . Austin, Texas. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  8. ↑ Pierce Greenberg, "Crants duo, associates getting $2M+ to cover RICO case costs", Nashville Post, March 29, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Company Overview of Homeland Security Company, LLC", Bloomberg Business.
  10. 1 2 "Prison Realty/CCA Verges on Bankruptcy". Prison Legal News. July 14, 2000. References "Doctor R. Crants"
  11. 1 2 "Prison magnate loses house in bankruptcy proceedings". Nashville Scene . October 10, 2023.
  12. ↑ "Industry experts credit Doc Crants". Newsweek. August 3, 1997.
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