The DOJ is investigating a Tennessee prison. State reports had warnings.

One of Tennessee's biggest prisons is now under federal investigation, but the state comptroller's office has sent warnings to officials for years that the facility was troublesome.

Trousdale Turner Correctional Center is a private prison owned by CoreCivic, which is headquartered in Brentwood. The state contracts the company to run the prison, and its current contract with Tennessee runs until June 2026. The facility opened in 2016 on the campus of a nuclear reactor that never opened in Hartsville. More than 2,000 men who are inmates live there.

Throughout the years, the Tennessee Office of the Comptroller has noted issues with the facility in its state audits. The U.S. Department of Justice will now conduct a civil investigation into the facility and its living conditions.

But the comptroller's office over the Tennessee Department of Corrections displayed problems inside the facility during the last eight years — from constant turnover to waitlists for inmates needing therapy and education to sexual abuse.

Main findings from the 2023 audit

In simplistic terms, Trousdale Turner doesn't have enough corrections officers.

During the inspection, the state saw one officer responsible for 360 inmate beds.

At least 57% of positions at the facility were not filled, according to the state audit. That's the highest of all correctional facilities in the state.

This stems from the turnover rates. From 2022 to 2023, the turnover rate was 188%. That was a 74% increase from the previous year. It is the highest turnover rate of any Tennessee prison — either private or state-run.

Because of staffing, the programs in the Trousdale prison are limited.

Trousdale only offers four treatment programs. It had a waitlist of 1,482 inmates needing help with both therapy and education. It only can help 25 people, according to the audit report. To further complicate issues, education opportunities are stunted because of a lack of internet connectivity, the state reported.

Additionally, staff at Trousdale Turner are closing rape investigations without rape kits being completed. This happened to eight inmates. In five cases, they didn't send the rape kits to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. By state law, they have to do so within 30 days. They eventually sent the kits, but this was only found after the coordination over this task was fired.

Main findings from the 2020 audit

The audit that came out in 2020 was during 18 months of findings.

The Trousdale facility was not using the accidents or injury system to report if any serious incidents happened to inmates. As a result, the facility reported zero incidents took place.

Bluntly, the state audit report said they found that unusual.

"We found the lack of reporting questionable given the nature of the correctional environment," auditors wrote in the report. "Given the nature of the correctional environment and when compared to other correctional facilities, it is unlikely that a facility would have no serious incidents to report."

It turned out staff said they didn't know they were supposed to report the data. This information breakdown was because of rapid turnover and improper training, according to the audit. Less of a problem than 2023, the report stated CoreCivic experienced high turnover in correctional staff. However, they said the private prison company's turnover was "significantly higher" than the state-managed facilities.

In addition to correctional officers, the ratio of healthcare workers in the facility was also high. There was one registered nurse to 225 or more inmates. The sampled medical records for the audit all contained errors, the report said.

The audit report noted management did not ensure that state and CoreCivic correctional facilities staff followed policies and procedures for investigating sexual abuse and sexual harassment allegations and documented their results.

Trousdale had the highest numbers when the reports were filed and filed on average 10 days late. They had 71 instances of either sexual abuse or harassment. Of that, five sexual abuse cases were staff on inmates. Four were that same variety of sexual harassment from staff via an inmate.

Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at emily.west@newschannel5.com.

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