The Department of Justice has announced a formal investigation into prison conditions at Trousdale Turner Correctional Facility, a 2,500-plus-bed facility managed by CoreCivic. Henry C. Leventis, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, and Kristin Clarke, an assistant attorney general with the DOJ’s civil rights division, cited a pattern of mismanagement at Trousdale Turner.
“People are incarcerated at Trousdale Turner as punishment for their crimes, but in our legal system, punishment does not and cannot include violence and sexual abuse,” says Clarke in a statement released Tuesday morning. “The Justice Department is launching this comprehensive investigation to determine if there are systemic constitutional violations regarding the treatment of people in this privately run correctional facility.”
A string of incidents at Trousdale Turner Correctional Facility highlights concerns about CoreCivic, Nashville’s home-grown private prison operator
As the local U.S. attorney, Leventis would help prosecute a future case for violations of inmates’ constitutional rights. Defendants could include CoreCivic as well as the state of Tennessee, which contracts with private operators via the Tennessee Department of Correction.
“Publicly available information suggests that Trousdale Turner has been plagued by serious problems since it first opened its doors,” says Leventis. “This includes reports of staffing shortages, physical and sexual assaults, murders, and a 188 percent turnover rate among prison guards just last year. Although CoreCivic owns and operates Trousdale, the State of Tennessee is ultimately responsible for the safety of the people incarcerated there. This investigation seeks to determine whether Tennessee is meeting its constitutional obligations.”
CoreCivic has faced multiple lawsuits related to inmate deaths at the facility in recent years. State auditors found understaffing, inadequate facilities, noncompliance with state policies and insufficient medical care in successive 2017, 2020 and 2023 audits. A comptroller report from December confirmed “unprecedented staffing issues” with “record-high vacancy and turnover rates” in Tennessee prisons led by Trousdale Turner, where the report found one officer responsible for 360 beds.
The publicly traded prison operator was founded 40 years ago as Corrections Corporation of America in Nashville with help from then-Gov. and future U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander.
