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Stock screeners are tools that let investors filter through a large number of stocks according to chosen criteria. It is important to remember that a stock screener is just a tool and every investment should be analyzed on its own merits to make sure it fits with your personal portfolio and risk characteristics. My weekly column finds interesting investment opportunities with the help of our Stock Screener.

To be honest, I decided on this stock screener quite by chance. I originally had my mind set on the Cosmetic & Skin Care industry for this week, but just above it was the Correctional Institutions industry. When prison management companies first became public I was so repulsed by the idea that I never followed up on them. Now, some ten years later, and after their performance the past year, I decided to take another look.

The four companies in the industry (in order of market capitalization) are Corrections Corporations of America (NYSE: CXW) with a $3.39 billion market cap, The Geo Group, Inc. (NYSE: GEO) with a market value of $1.22 billion, Cornell Companies, Inc. (NYSE: CRN) with a $302.52 million market cap and finally, the OTC traded (hence I won't cover it here) Avalon Correctional Services, Inc. (OTC: CITY).

Why even bother? Well, look at the year-to-date returns and decide for yourselves (the bottom, yellow line is the S&P 500), the rest, going up, are Cornell, CCA and Geo.

Better yet, one year returns are 54% for Cornell, 91% for CCA and 115% for Geo. So the question is -- have they run out of room to grow?