Deaths, Deplorable Conditions, Staff Misconduct Plague Memphis Jail by Memphis, the largest city in Tennessee’s Shelby County, is known for several things. Elvis Presley’s former residence, Graceland, is a popular tourist attraction, as are bars and nightlife attractions on Beale Street, the epicenter of world-renowned jazz and blues music. The …
Muslim Prisoners Face Price-Gouging by A fair amount of ink has been spilled about the high cost of items sold in prison commissaries. From honeybuns to deodorant, it’s all exorbitantly expensive, especially in light of the low wages prisoners are paid. But one often overlooked aspect of commissary pricing is …
Burns v. Strada, TN, Complaint, Methods of Execution, 2025 I. INTRODUCTION 1. Felony sentences imposed by Tennessee courts are, for the most part, entrusted to the Tennessee Department of Correction (“TDOC”) to carry out. In furtherance of that responsibility, TDOC receives over a billion dollars of taxpayer money each year. …
News in Brief by Alabama: Former Crenshaw County Jail Administrator Christian Alexander Porter, 33, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of excessive force, falsifying records and witness tampering on January 28, 2025. According to the Washington Post, the charges stem from an October 2021 incident in which …
U.S. Justice Department Investigating Tennessee CoreCivic Prison After Mother of Murdered Prisoner Reaches Settlement by Pointing to “reports of staffing shortages, physical and sexual assaults, murders and a 188% turnover rate among prison guards just last year,” the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on August 20, 2024, that …
Federal Charges Dropped Against Former Centurion Exec After Death of Co-Defendant Former Tennessee Prison Official by On December 6, 2025, federal prosecutors dismissed their case against Jeffrey Scott Wells, 54, a former Vice President of private prison medical contractor Centurion Health caught colluding with a former Tennessee Department of Correction …
Crime Down But Incarceration Up In Tennessee by Despite a significant drop in reported violent crimes in Tennessee, the number of people incarcerated by the state Department of Corrections (DOC) has risen, according to data released by the United States Department of Justice on October 15, 2024. That showed that …
News in Brief by Alabama: Clarke County Jail guard Larissa Thompson was arrested on December 5, 2024, for plotting to smuggle drugs into the lockup, the Thomasville Times reported. An investigation by state law enforcement, the office of County Sheriff DeWayne Smith, and Jackson Police uncovered evidence that Thompson planned …
Tennessee DOC Found in Violation of ADA With Failure to Accommodate Hearing Impaired Prisoners by As previously reported in PLN, hearing-impaired prisoner Ernest Trivette filed suit against the Tennessee Department of Corrections (DOC) in March 2020, accusing the prison system of failing to accommodate his disability. [See: PLN, Jan. 2024, …
Tennessee Finalizes New One-Drug Execution Protocol by No executions have been carried out by the Tennessee Department of Corrections (DOC) since May 2019, while the state reviewed its three-drug lethal injection protocol. That review was completed on December 27, 2024, when DOC announced a new protocol with just a single …
News in Brief by Australia: Brisbane Correctional Center prisoner Jack James Peterson, 29, was sentenced to an additional 18 months in January 2023 for assaulting a guard with a squash racket, the Courier reported. Peterson struck the unnamed 34-year-old during a confrontation involving a riot response team, leaving him with …
Trivette v. Tennessee Dept of Corrections, TN, Settlement, Discrimination-ADA Violation, 2025 SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT AND RELEASE This SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT AND RELEASE (“Settlement Agreement” or “Agreement”) sets forth the terms of the settlement by and between Alex Gordon Stinnett, Thomas White, Lakeevious Owens, (collectively the “Individual Plaintiffs”), and Disability Rights Tennessee (“DRT”) …
News in Brief by Alabama: Wiregrass Daily News reported that Mobile Metro Jail guard Timothy Lee Scarbrough, 39, was arrested on September 9, 2024, and charged with first-degree sodomy for the alleged sexual assaulting of a detainee who was still under the effects of anesthesia after eye surgery. Scarbrough had …
Tennessee Attorney Sues Federal Court Over Gag Order in CoreCivic Suit by In a suit filed on September 30, 2024, attorney Daniel Horwitz accused four judges in the federal court for the Middle District of Tennessee of violating his First Amendment rights with a gag order that was issued in …
News in Brief by Alabama: Former state Department of Corrections (DOC) guard Henry Guice, Jr., 46, was sentenced to 75 months in federal prison on September 9, 2024, for his role in a drug smuggling conspiracy at Staton Correctional Facility. The Birmingham News reported that a fellow guard was inspecting …
Two Hurricanes in Two Weeks Threaten Prisoners and Jail Detainees in Six States by Hurricane Helene left a trail of disaster across six states after making landfall in Florida on September 26, 2024. Less than two weeks later, Hurricane Milton reached Florida’s Gulf Coast on October 9, 2024, causing more …
Two Wrongful Tennessee Convictions Result in Payouts Over $1 Million by An undisclosed settlement with Grundy County on May 22, 2024, added to a $1 million payout that former Tennessee prisoner Adam Braseel had already received for 12 years he spent wrongfully imprisoned. That earlier award from the state Department …
CoreCivic’s Successful Campaign for Mass Incarceration Continues in Tennessee by When he was picked to chair the Tennessee Republican Party’s annual Statemen’s Dinner on June 15, 2024—billed as “the largest political event of the year” in the Republican-­dominated state—Damon Hininger, CEO of private prison operator CoreCivic, brought his firm into …
News in Brief by Alabama: On June 24, 2024, Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith told the Birmingham News that county jail guard Tony Dewayne Jackson, 29, had been arrested for smuggling “non-­drug” contraband into the lockup. Jackson was no longer working at the jail, but Smith didn’t say how or …
Tennessee DOC Rewards CoreCivic with Pay Increase Despite Critical Watchdog Audit by When Tennessee lawmakers adopted a new $52.8 billion state budget on April 18, 2024, it hiked outlays for the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to $233 million, a $9.8 million increase that mostly went to private prison giant …
