Great Plains opened in 1991 as the state's first private prison, a 500-bed facility financed by the town of Hinton floating a bond issue.

[3] In 2000 the facility held Oklahoma prisoners; the state levied a substantial fine against Cornell Companies (the predecessor of GEO Group) for failing to performing contractual obligations related to medical care.

[4] Oklahoma kept inmates at Great Plains until April 2007 when it ended the relationship—reportedly because of costs, but also after a January incident where two convicts cut the fence, escaped and went on a brief kidnapping and auto-theft crime spree before their recapture.

Federal officials again contracted to house "non-U.S. citizen criminal aliens who are deemed to be 'low-security' risks" with less than a year left to serve.

In February 2017 U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, rescinded the 2016 order by the Obama administration assuring Great Plains Correctional will continue as a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility operated by GEO Group.