Brian Robert Evans
Chief Executive Officer, The GEO Group, Inc.
Yeah. And during
the year last year, we benefited from the full impact of those that were somewhat negotiated at the end of...
George Christopher Zoley
Executive Chairman, The GEO Group, Inc.
Yeah.
Brian Robert Evans
Chief Executive Officer, The GEO
Group, Inc.
...2022 and early 2023. And that helped as well.
Kirk Ludtke
Analyst, Imperial Capital LLC
Got it. Thank you. Thats helpful. And then with respect to the you mentioned the technology in ISAP is evolving. Can you talk about what you
expect to happen with respect to the technology in that program and how it might impact margins and CapEx?
George Christopher Zoley
Executive Chairman, The GEO Group, Inc.
Well, all technologies,
I think are obligated to continue to...
Brian Robert Evans
Chief Executive Officer, The GEO Group, Inc.
Develop.
George Christopher Zoley
Executive Chairman, The
GEO Group, Inc.
...develop and evolve as our products, which presently include ankle monitors, phones and the new watches that weve developed.
Its called the VeriWatch. And we continue to think through replacements for those items in the future, replacements or improvement of those monitoring mechanisms.
Kirk Ludtke
Analyst, Imperial Capital LLC
Okay. Thank you. Last call you mentioned that the county jails in northern states were moving away from DHS and ICE, and that might be an opportunity down the
road. Do you, I guess, is there any way to put a range on that? How many beds you think might be in play this year?
George Christopher
Zoley
Executive Chairman, The GEO Group, Inc.
Its obviously going to depend on getting additional funding for ICE as we move through the fiscal year. And those opportunities are probably going to pop
up in the second half of the year, assuming additional funding.
Kirk Ludtke
Analyst, Imperial Capital LLC
Got it. Well, thats helpful.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
Operator
Thank you. And
our next question comes from Greg Gibas with Northland Securities. Please go ahead.
Greg Gibas
Analyst, Northland Securities, Inc.
Hey, thanks, guys. Congrats
on the quarter and thanks for taking the questions. I wanted to get a sense, because I know we expected a little bit of a rebound in the second half of 2023 in ISAP participants that didnt necessarily happen and I just wanted to see if you had
kind of visibility on how those populations are expected to change or is really stable or flat kind of the best assumption right now as we await more visibility from whether theres going to be government funding?
George Christopher Zoley
Executive Chairman, The
GEO Group, Inc.
We really wont know anything until the end of the first week of March. Thats the deadline for the existing continuing
resolutions. And the funding for the balance of the fiscal year will be determined by, I believe, March 8, unless there is a government shutdown of some sort, which we hope there is none.
Greg Gibas
Analyst, Northland Securities, Inc.
Okay, thats fair. I just wanted to see if you had any insight on whether that would change to otherwise. I wanted to also ask just with respect to
your cost structure in 2024, any notable changes or variations on expenses relative to 2023 that are worth calling out or is the cost structure going to be pretty steady comparatively?
Brian Robert Evans
Chief Executive Officer, The GEO
Group, Inc.
I would say its going to be pretty steady comparatively. The biggest maybe line-item change will be as we continue to reduce our debt,
the interest expense year-over-year should be lower, I think, what, about $20 million-$25 million?