Good morning. My name is Jonathan and I will be your conference operator. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. At this time, I’d like to welcome you to the CoreCivic’s Second Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to avoid any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Cameron Hopewell, CoreCivic’s Managing Director of Investor Relations. Mr. Hopewell, you may begin your conference.

Thanks, Jonathan. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us. Participating on today’s call are Damon Hininger, President and Chief Executive Officer; and David Garfinkle, Chief Financial Officer. We are also joined here in the room by our Vice President of Finance, Brian Hammonds. During today’s call, our remarks including our answers to your questions will include forward-looking statements pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities and Litigation Reform Act. Our actual results or trends may differ materially as a result of a variety of factors, including those identified in our second quarter 2019 earnings release issued after market yesterday and in our Securities and Exchange Commission Filings including Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K reports. You are also cautioned that any forward-looking statements reflect management’s current views only and that the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update such statements in the future. On this call, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP measurements. A reconciliation of the most comparable GAAP measurement is provided in our corresponding earnings release and included in the supplemental financial data that we provide on the Investors page of our website, corecivic.com. With that, it’s my pleasure to turn the call over to our President and CEO, Damon Hininger. Damon?

Thank you, Cameron. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our second quarter 2019 conference call today. I will begin with a brief overview on CoreCivic before moving to a discussion of our second quarter financial performance in which we saw growth in all key financial metrics. I will provide details of the trends driving our increased financial guidance for the second half of 2019, the prospect for further future cash flow growth in 2020, and our views on how we manage the balance sheet and our capital allocation strategy moving forward. I will then close with the discussion of recent developments within the industry, particularly those pertaining to our banking relationships, and I will once again correct the record on a few common misrepresentations about these developments perpetrated by various special interests, media and political figures. CoreCivic is a diversified real estate investment trust specializing in delivering government real estate solutions to serve the public good. We are the country’s largest private owner of real estate assets and used by United States government agencies with 105 facilities, totaling over 17 million square feet of real estate and a 35-year history of delivering a broad range of solutions to help solve tough government challenges in flexible, cost effective ways. Our unique diversified portfolio of assets generates a steady, reoccurring cash flow stream, underwritten by investment grade government tenants. Each of our three complementary business segments provides specialized real estate to government tenants. Our Safety segment owns and manages corrections and detention facilities, including 51 correctional and detention facilities with a design capacity to safely and securely care for nearly 73,000 people. Our Community segment is a growing network of residential reentry centers and non-residential community-based corrections alternatives that help address America’s recidivism crisis, and includes 27 residential reentry facilities…

Thank you, Damon, and good morning, everyone. In the second quarter, we generated $0.47 to adjusted EPS compared to our guidance range of $0.40 to $0.42, exceeding the midpoint by 14.6%. Normalized FFO totaled $0.69 per share, compared to our guidance range of $0.62 to $0.64, beating the midpoint by 9.5%. AFFO totaled $0.67 per share, compared to our guidance range of $0.60 to $0.62 exceeding the midpoint by 9.8%. Adjusted EBITDA was $115.3 million for the quarter, exceeding the midpoint of our guidance by $7.3 million or 6.7%, reflecting strong operating results. Our financial results exceeded our guidance levels, largely the result of higher than projected populations in our CoreCivic Safety segment and lower operating expenses. Compared to the prior year quarter, adjusted EPS increased by $0.11, and each of normalized FFO and AFFO increased $0.12 per share. The per share growth and adjusted EPS, normalized FFO and AFFO from the prior year quarter represent per share increases of 31%, 21% and 22%, respectively. Occupancy increased from 80.2% in the prior year quarter to 82.8% in the second quarter of 2019. During June and July 2018, we were awarded two new federal contracts at our Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi and at our La Palma Correctional Center in Arizona. Since the first quarter of 2018, we were also awarded new contracts at our Tallahatchie facility from the states of South Carolina and Vermont. And during the third quarter of 2018, the State of Wyoming began utilizing a contract this facility that had not been utilized in nearly a decade. These new contracts more than offset the impact from the expected removal of populations from the State of California at these two facilities. Financial results also reflected the activation of our Lee Adjustment Center in Kentucky in the prior…

Thank you, Dave. Before we open up the call for Q&A, I want to take a moment to reiterate a few key points. CoreCivic provides essential infrastructure and services that are there when government partners at all levels need them. Meeting these critical needs transcends politics as is evident from our work with every administration, Democrat or Republican over the past 35 years. Additionally, nearly 50% of our revenue comes from state and local government contracts, which are not impacted by federal policy making. Our strategy of diversifying our portfolio of mission-critical government lease real estate assets is paying off through strong growth trends in all three of our business segments. Cash Flow decline from the past five years, particularly from declining populations from California and the Federal Bureau of Prisons are behind us as we have been able to meet the critical needs of new and existing government partners. Our total revenue and cash flows are at or near record highs, thanks to the growth of CoreCivic Properties and CoreCivic Community in our steadfast commitment to helping people. Our current dividend is well covered. In fact, our AFFO dividend payout ratio of 68% is below the REIT industry average of 78%, and our cash flows are growing. New and expanded contracts from multiple customers are coming on line in the second half of 2019, setting up 2020 for continued cash flow growth. Our debt leverage, while already very conservative compared to other REITs, is declining as a result of cash flow growth, which further improves the financial strength of the Company. We currently have no need to deploy new capital in 2020. We believe our fundamental financial strength and commitment to conducting our business in a transparent ethical fashion will continue to attract sufficient sources of capital, regardless of the short-term disruptions caused by politically motivated misinformation efforts. I'll now turn it over to the operator to open the call for a Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] At this time I am showing no questions in the queue. I would like to turn the floor back to Mr. Damon Hininger for closing remarks.

Thank you. Before we conclude the call, I once again want to take a moment to recognize our employees who are teachers, chaplains, nurses, mothers, veterans, and many others. These are really good people doing great work for our government partners, and the individuals entrusted in our care. We understand that recent media and political rhetoric is frustrating to our employees and it's frustrating for me too. We work hard to find the sources of factual information on a daily basis. But most importantly, I wanted to thank them for the meaningful work that we do, making a real difference for those in our care. Whether we are putting individuals on the road to reentry, or providing a safe environment for people who have just entered our country, they play a meaningful and important role. And for that I am truly thankful. As a 27-year veteran of this Company, I'm extremely proud of the mission and life-changing work that we do for all those in our care. We are confident in our purpose and reality of who we are and what we do. So, with that said, in closing, I would like to thank everyone for joining us on the call today. We look forward to reporting to you our third quarter results in November and providing an updated outlook for the remainder of 2019 and kicking off of 2020.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's teleconference. You may now disconnect.