Tennessee levied $44.78 million in penalties against private prison operator in three years

by Sam Stockard, Tennessee Lookout
February 19, 2025

Tennessee’s Department of Correction is requesting a $6.8 million contract increase for its private prison operator despite penalizing the company $44.78 million since 2022 for contractual shortfalls, $15 million in the last five months alone.

Correction officials told lawmakers Tuesday that Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, which is under a civil rights investigation by the Department of Justice, has a 33.7% vacancy rate for prison officers compared with 26% at state-run prisons. The facility is one of four prisons operated by CoreCivic, a publicly-traded company that runs facilities nationwide.

Trousdale Turner sustained a 146% turnover rate in 2023, making it more difficult to check on prisoners and avert safety risks.

“None of this makes sense where the state is increasing the amount it’s paying CoreCivic every year but also penalizing CoreCivic for not meeting the terms of the contract,” said Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro of Nashville. “It seems that we need to really take a close look at what’s being required in these contracts where CoreCivic’s falling short and what we can do about it.”

CoreCivic refuses to disclose what it pays officers, and in some instances when it has personnel shortages, it brings in officers from other states to boost staff. 

Yarbro considers that a “transparency” problem and said CoreCivic has the resources to increase officer pay and benefits to meet the terms of the state contract. Tennessee boosted prison officer pay by 35% two years ago.

Correction Commissioner Frank Strada continued to defend CoreCivic after a budget hearing Tuesday, calling the company a “partner” for the state and saying the prison system has monitors who determine whether the privately-run prisons are meeting contract demands. He said the CoreCivic prisons have seen a decrease in violent incidents and contraband but provided no statistics to back up that assertion.

“They are doing what they can for progress,” Strada said after the Senate State and Local Government Committee approved his budget request.

The state pays CoreCivic about $240 million annually despite audits detailing low staffing, violence, deaths and other problems. Tennessee’s overall prison budget could jump $91.6 million to $1.4 billion if lawmakers approve the department’s request.

Strada said the $6.8 million increase for CoreCivic is based on inflation, not a pay raise.

In spite of the increase in penalties against the company, Strada said his department is “holding them accountable.” He said CoreCivic has corrected 90% of the findings in a state audit conducted more than two years ago.

The total number of deaths in CoreCivic prisons from 2019 through 2022 was 221, more than a third of the 645 deaths reported in the entire state 14-prison system, including facilities for women, according to department figures. More than half of the prison system’s drug-related deaths in that time frame took place in the four private prisons out of 143 drug-related deaths overall. The department did not give death statistics for all of 2023 and 2024.

The Department of Correction provided information to the Tennessee Lookout Tuesday showing the state has levied fines totaling $44.78 million against CoreCivic since 2022, up some $15 million since last October. Those include $15.4 million assessed against Hardeman County Correctional Facility, $6.3 million against South Central Correctional Facility, $10.8 million against Trousdale Turner and $12.15 million against Whiteville Correctional Facility, according to the department.

An inmate died at Hardeman County Correctional Facility and several others were injured in December 2024. 

Separately, a lawsuit was filed against CoreCivic last year claiming an inmate died of a drug overdose stemming from understaffing and a prison drug ring, according to news reports. The lawsuit said 418 calls for help were made about overdoses over three years at Trousdale Turner and that staff profited by allowing drugs to be smuggled into the facility.

CoreCivic declined to comment on the lawsuit at the time, but said it has a zero-tolerance policy for contraband.

A Tennessee law dating back to the 1980s when the company was founded as Corrections Corporation of America allows the state to have only one privately-run prison. The company gets around that law by contracting with counties where the prisons are located.

Since 2009, the company has spent $3.7 million on lobbying and campaign donations in the state, a Lookout analysis found.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

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