Prison News | Tennessee

• Education & Rehabilitation
• Executions, Death Row, & the Death Penalty
• Gangs in Prison
• Health & Medical Treatment
• Prison Classification, Placement, and Release
• Prison Conditions & Corruption
• Prison Life & Prison Culture
• Riots, Lockdowns & Escapes
• Suicides in Prison
• Workplace & Industry News and Science & Tech

Education & Rehabilitation

• Rutherford workhouse wants to add mechatronics training for inmates
  
  Inmate Kevin Webb hopes others at the Rutherford County Correctional Work Center will learn the mechatronics training he obtained from his employer.... [ more ]
  Daily News Journal, Tuesday, May 14, 2019
  
  
• Stats on electronic monitoring in Tenn.
  
  A government audit last summer looked at a sample of 68 GPS offenders and found that officers with the state's Board of Probation and Parole had failed to clear or confirm 80 percent of the 11,347 alerts they generated over 10 months.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Sunday, July 28, 2013
  
  
• Students, inmates take class in prison
  
  Traditional students who go to the prison every week for the class see it as a rare opportunity to find out about prison life... [ more ]
  The Tennessean, Thursday, January 25, 2007
  
  

Executions, Death Row & the Death Penalty

• Rapist cries on electric chair as he is executed over murder of teenage girl and mother
  
  A man convicted of the murders of a mother and her 15-year-old daughter has been executed in Tennessee marking the third time the state has used the electric chair in less than a year.... [ more ]
  independent.co.uk, Friday, August 16, 2019
  
  
• Tennessee executes Stephen Michael West by electric chair
  
  NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee executed death row inmate Stephen Michael West on Thursday night, marking the third time the state has used the electric chair in less than a year.... [ more ]
  USA Today, Thursday, August 15, 2019
  
  
• Man sentenced to life in prison in housemate's fiery death
  
  A Tennessee man who admitted in a letter to a white supremacist organization that he fatally set his housemate on fire has been sentenced to life in prison.... [ more ]
  Yahoo, Monday, July 22, 2019
  
  
• Death row inmate dies just months before execution date for double murder
  
  A death row prisoner diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer has died just three months before he was due to be executed for a double murder. ... [ more ]
  Mirror.co.uk, Tuesday, May 21, 2019
  
  

Gangs in Prison

• Students, inmates take class in prison
  
  Traditional students who go to the prison every week for the class see it as a rare opportunity to find out about prison life... [ more ]
  The Tennessean, Thursday, January 25, 2007
  
  
• Rival gang members form alliance to create an atmosphere of peace
  
  Mario Lee, a freshman and member of the Gangster Disciples gang, said a teacher first ask him how... [ more ]
  Nashville City Paper, Wednesday, January 24, 2007
  
  
• Suspects in Knoxville double murder caused trouble behind bars
  
  News has learned more details about two of the suspects in the carjacking and murders of... [ more ]
  WATE.com - Knoxville,TN, Friday, January 19, 2007
  
  

Health & Medical Treatment

• Officer Must Face Paralyzed Inmate�s Suit Over Medical Delay
  
  A Tennessee corrections officer doesn’t have qualified immunity from civil rights claims for allegedly causing a delay in medical care for an inmate who had a spinal abscess that led to temporary paralysis and incontinence, the Sixth Circuit said Jan. 8.... [ more ]
  Bloomberg Law, Thursday, January 9, 2020
  
  
• State opening intensive drug recovery program in Morgan County
  
  It’s been one of state Mental Health Commissioner Douglas Varney’s biggest “wants”: a statewide, intensive residential facility to deal with drug addiction — especially prescription drug addiction, which Varney has long said is spiraling ...... [ more ]
  Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tuesday, July 23, 2013
  
  

Prison Classification, Placement, & Release

• Group sets sights on Tennessee prison reform, savings
  
  The Tennessee Consultation on Criminal Justice is beginning to find support among lawmakers to address overcrowding in the state's prisons, The City Paper reports.... [ more ]
  Memphis Business Journal Online, Monday, June 17, 2013
  
  

Prison Conditions & Corruption

• More violence at troubled Nashville juvenile jail
  
  NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Despite its idyllic-sounding name, the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center had seen a decade of violent clashes, breakout attempts and attacks on guards.

  Then, on Monday night, 32 teens escaped. Just two days later, two dozen detainees broke into the yard wielding sticks and spraying a fire extinguisher.... [ more ]

  Daily Mail Online, Thursday, September 4, 2014
  
  
• TORTURE COMMON IN U.S. JAILS -- IRAQ-STYLE ABUSES WERE PERFECTED HERE AT HOME
  
  Fifty men lie face down on the cold prison floor with their manacled hands tightly bound and twisted behind their backs while attack dogs, Dobermans and German Shepherds, terrorize the prisoners, lunging and snarling inches from their faces. Is this a description of another torture scene from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq? No. This is a scene from a county jail in Tennessee in early 2003.... [ more ]
  American Free Press, Sunday, June 15, 2014
  
  
• State recommends Roane Co. Jail decertifcation
  
  KINGSTON, Tenn. (WVLT) -- The Roane County Jail can hold 172 inmates - 32 women in a separate womens' pod, and the rest men. On Tuesday, there were 192 prisoners.... [ more ]
  WVLT-TV, Tuesday, July 9, 2013
  
  

Prison Life & Culture

Riots, Lockdowns & Escapes

• Escaped Miss. inmate arrested in Fayette County, Tenn. according to US Marshals
  
  FAYETTE COUNTY, Tenn. (WMC) - An inmate who escaped from the Mississippi State Penitentiary on Saturday has been captured in Tennessee.... [ more ]
  WMC Action News, Monday, January 6, 2020
  
  
• Tennessee Immate Escapes Work Site in Truck, Search Begins
  
  MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities searched on Monday for a Tennessee jail inmate who escaped a work site in a truck.... [ more ]
  US News, Monday, January 6, 2020
  
  
• Tennessee authorities search for inmate who escaped in van
  
  MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Authorities in Tennessee say they’re searching for an inmate who escaped custody in his county-assigned work van and hit an employee on his way out.... [ more ]
  washingtontimes.com, Wednesday, November 6, 2019
  
  
• Search for escaped Tennessee inmate Curtis Watson stretches into second day
  
  MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A manhunt for an escaped Tennessee inmate stretched into a second day Thursday after a prison administrator was found dead Wednesday morning.... [ more ]
  USA Today, Thursday, August 8, 2019
  
  
• Two more bodies found in Tennessee home, suspect linked to 7 deaths
  
  Authorities said Sunday that seven bodies have been discovered at two homes in rural Tennessee, six of them in one location.... [ more ]
  Fox News Network, Sunday, April 28, 2019
  
  
• VINSON: Jailhouse brawl: A matter of �perception�
  
  A few months back, I went to a local jail to visit a good friend, at that time incarcerated for a driving infraction. It had been several years since I had visited anyone at this particular jail, so I had to re-acclimate to the current protocol for those visiting inmates.

  The last time I’d visited someone at this jail — which was years ago — visitors and inmates could visit face-to-face in an open-space area, with a deputy/jailer monitoring the situation, of course.... [ more ]

  Murfreesboro Post, Sunday, June 15, 2014
  
  
• Bledsoe trusty escapes from prison farm, jumps off tractor and runs into the woods
  
  Tennessee Department of Correction spokeswoman Dorinda Carter said 32-year-old Jeffery Lynn Carter was operating a tractor at the prison farm at Bledsoe County Correctional Complex when he jumped from the machine and ran into some woods at about 7 p.m. Sunday.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Monday, August 12, 2013
  
  

Suicides in Prison

Workplace & Industry News, and Science & Tech News

• CCA Announces David Garfinkle to Succeed Todd Mullenger as Chief Financial Officer
  
  NASHVILLE, TN, Apr 10, 2014 (Marketwired via COMTEX) -- CCA CXW -1.12% (the "Company" or "Corrections Corporation of America"), America's largest owner of partnership correctional and detention facilities, announced today that David Garfinkle, who currently serves as the Company's Vice President of Finance and Controller, has been selected by the Board of Directors to succeed Todd Mullenger as the Company's Chief Financial Officer effective May 1, 2014. Mullenger has decided to step down as CFO, but will remain with the Company for a two-year period to assist in the transition and to assist in various projects.... [ more ]
  MarketWatch, Thursday, April 10, 2014
  
  
• CCA Awarded Three-Year Contract Renewal With California
  
  NASHVILLE, TN -- (Marketwired) -- 07/10/13 -- CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) (NYSE: CXW), America's largest owner of partnership correctional and detention facilities, announced today that it has renewed its contract with the ...... [ more ]
  iStockAnalyst, Wednesday, July 10, 2013