The Justice Department announced on Tuesday an investigation into a correctional facility near Nashville, following reports that understaffing and high employee turnover have led to physical and sexual abuse of inmates, The New York Times reports. Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general, suggested that a lack of oversight from the state and mismanagement by CoreCivic, the private company that runs the prison, could have contributed to the dangerous environment at Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, the largest correctional facility in Tennessee. “This investigation should send a clear message,” she said during a news conference. “When states choose to have private companies run their prisons, they remain liable for the conditions inside those facilities. Private prisons are not above the law.” The inquiry is part of a broader effort by Clarke’s civil rights division to scrutinize prisons and jails across the country, including in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia.
At Trousdale Turner, which falls under the purview of the Tennessee Department of Correction, accounts of stabbings, killings and abuse are rampant. Since the complex opened in 2016, it has been plagued by reports of “physical assaults, sexual assaults, murders and unchecked flow of contraband and severe staffing shortages,” said Henry C. Leventis, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. The department’s civil rights division is investigating with prosecutors in Tennessee. According to one audit from state officials, a single correctional officer was responsible for supervising more than 300 people. In another, a corrections officer described how the staffing shortages had contributed to an alarming environment for inmates. “If you get assaulted, you’re going to get assaulted until the inmates get tired of beating you,” because there are no corrections officers available to help, the officer wrote. This year, five inmates were stabbed at Trousdale Turner in less than a month. Two of the assaults, though unrelated, happened on the same day. A lawsuit filed last year said that understaffing and negligence by corrections officers contributed to the death of an inmate.
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