Founded in 1998, the jail was previously managed and operated by Boca Raton, Florida's GEO Group until 2009 and was run by West Caldwell, New Jersey based company, Community Education Centers (CEC).

In April 2017, GEO Group completed an acquisition of CEC, regaining management of the prison.

Several of those deaths resulted in lawsuits by family members who said the facility did not provide adequate medical care or proper supervision for offenders.

On December 31, 2008, GEO pulled out of operations at this facility, "citing underperformance and frequent litigations" as the reasons.

[7] According to the Delaware County Medical Examiner's office six suicides have occurred at George W. Hill since CEC took over operations of the facility in 2009.