CoreCivic, the leading U.S. private prison company, 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 Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, which is now under federal investigation, the Associated Press reports. Nearly 80 settlements AP obtained through public records requests allege brutal beatings, medical neglect and cruelty at the company’s four prisons and two jails in Tennessee. A Trousdale inmate who feared for his life beat his cellmate, Terry Childress, to death to get transferred to a different prison, a federal lawsuit says. No guards came to Childress’ aid at the understaffed facility, the suit claims. Childress’ family got a $135,000 settlement.
A judge ordered the family’s attorney, Daniel Horwitz, to stop disparaging CoreCivic and to delete tweets calling it a “death factory.” He is suing over the gag order. The U.S. Department of Justice has announced an investigation of Trousdale, noting that reports of violence have been endemic since its 2016 opening. The investigation comes after years of documented “reports of physical assaults, sexual assaults, murders and unchecked flow of contraband and severe staffing shortages,” said U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis. CoreCivic, headquartered in Brentwood, Tenn., has a net worth of $1.44 billion. Surviving inmates or grieving families have fought for years to reach settlements. CoreCivic did not admit wrongdoing. The largest settlement was for $900,000 over a South Central Correctional Facility inmate’s suicide where staff falsified records. Three others were for about $300,000 apiece.
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