The leading private prison company in the U.S. has spent more than $4.4 million to settle dozens of complaints alleging mistreatment — including at least 22 inmate deaths — at its Tennessee prisons and jails since 2016.
More than $1.1 million of those payouts involved Tennessee’s largest prison, the long-scrutinized Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, which is now under federal investigation.
Details of nearly 80 settlements provided to The Associated Press through public records requests allege brutal beatings, medical neglect and cruelty at CoreCivic’s four prisons and two jails in Tennessee.
In one case, a Trousdale inmate who feared for his life beat his cellmate, Terry Childress, to death to get transferred to a different prison, the federal lawsuit says. No guards came to Childress’ aid at the chronically understaffed facility, the suit claims. Childress’ family received a $135,000 settlement.
Details of nearly 80 settlements provided to The Associated Press through public records requests allege brutal beatings, medical neglect and cruelty at CoreCivic’s four prisons and two jails in Tennessee.
In one case, a Trousdale inmate who feared for his life beat his cellmate, Terry Childress, to death to get transferred to a different prison, the federal lawsuit says. No guards came to Childress’ aid at the chronically understaffed facility, the suit claims. Childress’ family received a $135,000 settlement.
Holy shit. Imagine killing someone, a person who was randomly assigned to share your cell and who didn’t do anything to you (presumably), just to save yourself from a threat. I can actually understand how this might work in the mind of a killer when usually I can’t. That says a lot.
Prison workers are not immune from the violence. At Trousdale in 2019, a counselor lost an eye and suffered other permanent injuries when an inmate attacked her with a homemade knife and raped her. Officials had withheld the inmate’s antipsychotic medication as punishment for illegal drug use.
Wtf. We’re gonna punish you by withholding medical treatment, thereby making you more dangerous to everyone around you. What the hell is this?!
As I’ve said many times, were I fated to go to prison in the South, I’d kill myself. No question.
