Gov. Bill Lee is responding to a new federal investigation into a Tennessee prison that has proven troublesome during its last three audit reports produced by the state.
The U.S. Department of Justice said they opened the investigation into Trousdale Turner Correctional Center after many issues in eight years. Those include stabbings, 196 assaults, two murders, 15 deaths classified as accidental and 90 incidents of sexual misconduct.
Trousdale Turner Correctional Center is a private prison owned by CoreCivic, 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.
About the investigation: New federal investigation will look into living conditions at Trousdale Turner Correctional Center
"The audits are important," Lee said. "The comptroller's audits are part of the process of accountability. We understand that. We know it. We want those audits to happen, and we want to know what the shortcomings are. We want to take steps moving forward, and I believe that we will see that we have taken steps moving forward, but it's a never-ending process. We should audit every prison, every facility, and make sure it's being operated the way it should. And when we find a shortcoming or a shortfall, we step in and make sure that it's met."
The audits have shown issues with Trousdale nearly since its opening in 2016.
An audit from the state comptroller's office that came out in December showed at least 57% of positions at the facility were not filled. This had a domino effect into other problems from not turning in rape kits to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to a waitlist of more than 1,000 inmates waiting for treatment programs in the facility."
About the audits: The Department of Justice is investigating a Tennessee prison. State reports showed warnings.
The current Tennessee Department of Corrections Commissioner Frank Strada had been on the job only a handful of months when the audit took place. He was put in place by Gov. Lee in early 2023.
"Commissioner Strada has spent quite a bit of time going to that very facility to make sure that if there are deficiencies that we work to meet them," Lee said. "We've reduced the number of inmates at the facility in the last section of time. CoreCivic has been a very important partner to the state in operating the prisons that they operate, we want to know when there are deficiencies. We want to know that we're operating our prisons in the way that we should, and we'll determine that through this process. We'll see what happens."
However, the audit released in December showed there were less than 30 beds available and filled at 96% capacity at the facility.
The governor didn't get any specifics of the claims made by the DOJ.
Have you been affected?
The Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section is conducting this investigation jointly with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Individuals with relevant information are encouraged to contact the department via phone at 888-392-7031 or by email at community.trousdaleturner@usdoj.gov.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at emily.west@newschannel5.com.
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