Violence at South Central Prompts Statewide Prison Lockdown

Prisons across the state were locked down on Thursday night and part of Friday after two separate violent incidents at South Central Correctional Facility in Clifton, Tenn. 

Officials with CoreCivic — the private prison company that runs the South Central prison along with six other facilities in the state — and the Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed the incidents and subsequent lockdown to the Scene. Multiple sources who were in contact with people inside the prison system said Friday that a stabbing was involved, but CoreCivic spokesperson Amanda Gilchrist described it as "two separate inmate-on-inmate assaults." A total of six inmates were transported to outside medical facilities for "treatment of non-life-threatening injuries," and four had been released as of Friday afternoon. Four prison guards were injured while responding to the violence, Gilchrist said, and all were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. As of Friday afternoon, three of the correctional officers had been released from outside medical facilities. 

TDOC spokesperson Neysa Taylor confirmed the statewide lockdown to the Scene in a written statement on Friday afternoon.

"Due to information received from external law enforcement partners, last night the Tennessee Department of Correction temporarily locked down facilities across the state," she said. "This temporary lockdown was out of an abundance of caution for the safety and security of the department’s inmates, staff & facilities. At this time several facilities are no longer on lockdown. Over the next few days the remaining facilities will return to normal operation as the department reviews additional intelligence and evaluates the security at each facility."

The incident comes just weeks after a state legislative hearing about the management of the state's prison system that focused on inadequate staffing and allegations of violence and sexual assault at CoreCivic facilities. The South Central prison in particular has been the site of similar incidents in the past. Two inmates were killed at South Central — allegedly by other inmates — within a period of seven months between September 2013 and March 2014. A lawsuit filed by a South Central inmate in 2016 alleged grisly conditions including rampant gang activity and assaults, describing a culture that allowed gangs "the unencumbered right to literally take over substantial portions of the housing unit." 

In 2017, a verbal confrontation between a prisoner and an officer at Turney Center Industrial Complex — a prison run by the state — sparked a riot involving 16 inmates and three prison officers, two of whom were stabbed multiple times. A third officer was held hostage for some three hours. That facility has also been plagued by problems attributed to understaffing, including diabetic inmates receiving insufficient care according to a lawsuit filed in 2017.  

But last week's incident, and subsequent statewide lockdown, also turned out to be an example of the extra barrier to transparency that is created by Tennessee's ongoing marriage to the private prison industry. Upon hearing word that prisons around the state were on lockdown, the Scene reached out to TDOC asking for confirmation, or denial, of a stabbing at South Central that had led to a lockdown. Taylor, the TDOC spokesperson, initially responded only by saying that "the CoreCivic PIO is handling media" for the facility. We reached out to CoreCivic, but also asked Taylor if she could at least confirm that prisons across the state had been locked down. She responded with the statement quoted above. When Gilchrist, CoreCivic's spokesperson, responded, she gave us the information reported above. But her statement concluded with this: "In deference to our government partner, other inquiries regarding the incident should be directed to the TDOC Communication Division."

It is essentially part of a reporter's job to be tripped up and inconvenienced by government spokespeople, but what's happening here is something worse. It's an extra layer of buck-passing that means information about Tennessee citizens incarcerated by the state must be sought first from a for-profit corporation. As a result, our view of the prison system — already foggy due to the state's restrictions on media access — is potentially obscured even more.