NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) \u2014 The leading private prison company in the U.S. has spent more than $4.4 million to settle dozens of complaints alleging mistreatment \u2014 including at least 22 inmate deaths \u2014 at its Tennessee prisons and jails since 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than $1.1 million of those payouts involved Tennessee\u2019s largest prison, the long-scrutinized Trousdale Turner Correctional Center<\/u><\/a>, which is now under federal investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Details of nearly 80 settlements provided to The Associated Press through public records requests allege brutal beatings, medical neglect and cruelty at CoreCivic\u2019s four prisons and two jails in Tennessee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In one case, a Trousdale inmate who feared for his life beat his cellmate, Terry Childress, to death to get transferred to a different prison, the federal lawsuit says. No guards came to Childress\u2019 aid at the chronically understaffed facility, the suit claims. Childress\u2019 family received a $135,000 settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The family\u2019s attorney, Daniel Horwitz, was ordered by a judge to stop publicly disparaging CoreCivic and to take down tweets<\/u><\/a> calling it a \u201cdeath factory.\u201d He is suing over the gag order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced an investigation of Trousdale, noting that reports of violence have been endemic since its 2016 opening. The investigation comes after years of well-documented \u201creports of physical assaults, sexual assaults, murders and unchecked flow of contraband and severe staffing shortages,\u201d U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt does certainly appear as though settling lawsuits is a cost of doing business, rather than an alarm, a wake-up call, a siren,\u201d said Mary Price, general counsel of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, which advocated for the Trousdale investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CoreCivic, headquartered in Brentwood, Tenn., has a value of $1.44 billion as measured by market capitalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surviving inmates or grieving families have often fought for years to reach settlements. Some advocated publicly for their cases, speaking to news outlets and participating in demonstrations. But accepting a settlement generally required quieting down. And, typical of settlements across industries, CoreCivic did not admit any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The largest settlement was for $900,000 over a South Central Correctional Facility inmate\u2019s suicide where staff falsified records. Three others were for about $300,000 apiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But those payouts were the exception. Half the settlements were for $12,500 or less. Some involved no money at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn a lot of these cases, unfortunately, victims and family members of victims are in this position to choose between some amount of money, which is probably more than they\u2019ve seen in a long time, or speaking their truth and sharing their stories and really being able to do something that brings this to an end,\u201d said Ashley Dixon, a whistleblower who worked less than a year as a Trousdale corrections officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A CoreCivic spokesperson, Ryan Gustin, declined to comment on specific settlements, saying most have confidentiality terms. He said the corrections industry generally has had staffing issues and pointed to CoreCivic\u2019s hiring incentives and strategies to backfill with workers from other facilities nationally. He said CoreCivic facilities offer \u201ccomprehensive medical and mental health care\u201d and are closely monitored by the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The settlements make up a fraction of the lawsuits CoreCivic has faced over its Tennessee facilities. The 22 death settlements are also only a fraction of the 300-plus deaths in the four CoreCivic prisons since 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than half the hundreds of deaths were deemed natural, including Jonathan Salada, who lay on his cell floor at Trousdale crying in pain after being denied diabetes medication, according to a 2018 lawsuit. He was taken to the infirmary but returned to his cell twice before being found unconscious three days later and pronounced dead at the hospital. The lawsuit was settled for $50,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The settled lawsuits claim that even critical staff positions are sometimes unfilled at CoreCivic prisons, leaving inmates unprotected and unable to get help when attacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adrian Delk received a $120,000 settlement after seven gang members nearly beat him to death for \u201cbetween 20 minutes and one hour\u201d with no one to intervene at Hardeman in 2016, according to his lawsuit. He was later stabbed and beaten again, suffering several permanent injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prison workers are not immune from the violence. At Trousdale in 2019, a counselor lost an eye and suffered other permanent injuries when an inmate attacked her with a homemade knife and raped her. Officials had withheld the inmate\u2019s antipsychotic medication as punishment for illegal drug use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a 2023 state audit, a guard noted: \u201cWhile at Trousdale, I feel unsafe at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leventis, the U.S. attorney, noted that Tennessee has known of problems at its CoreCivic facilities. The state\u2019s corrections agency has fined CoreCivic $37.7 million across four prisons since 2016, including $11.1 million for problems at Trousdale. The violations include failures to meet staffing requirements. The state comptroller released scathing audits in 2017<\/u><\/a>, 2020<\/u><\/a> and 2023<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet state leaders have consistently downplayed the problems and renewed contracts with CoreCivic, a company that figures prominently in political spending. Tennessee is CoreCivic\u2019s largest state customer, accounting for 10% of total revenue in 2023, according to a corporate filing. CEO Damon Hininger has even floated running for governor in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCoreCivic has been a very important partner to the state,\u201d Republican Gov. Bill Lee told reporters after the Trousdale investigation announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Dixon, the former Trousdale guard, testified to state lawmakers in 2017 about the deaths of Salada and a second prisoner, Jeff Mihm, the committee chairman tried to cut her off at a two-minute limit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe just told you about a death in one of our facilities, and we\u2019re going to cut her off?\u201d replied Democratic Rep. Bo Mitchell, prompting applause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mihm also had been denied psychiatric medication and treatment at Trousdale and killed himself in 2017, according to a lawsuit that eventually settled for $5,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it\u2019s very sad that it\u2019s a small amount that they receive, because those people\u2019s lives were worth much more than that,\u201d Dixon told the AP after learning about the settlements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of the settled cases claim inmates were denied basic preventive care \u2014 diabetes medication, an inhaler, a walking cane, seizure drugs. Often the inmates were either not allowed to see a provider or the provider dismissed their concerns, the suits claim. They describe horrifying outcomes, including deaths from undiagnosed cancers and pneumonia, a suicide, a leg amputation and a brain injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the Metro-Davidson County Detention Facility, Belinda Cockrill had extreme abdominal pain for months, unable to keep food down and losing more than 30 pounds (13.6 kilograms), but was treated primarily with diarrhea medication, according to a 2016 federal lawsuit brought by her mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cockrill eventually became unresponsive and was rushed to the hospital, where she went into cardiac arrest and died. Only then was it discovered she had rectal cancer that spread to several organs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cockrill\u2019s mother received a $45,000 settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kathy Spurgeon\u2019s son Adam died in November when he developed an infection after heart surgery while an inmate at Trousdale. Spurgeon said she was misled about her son\u2019s condition and he was denied medication, despite her requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spurgeon didn\u2019t sue CoreCivic because she feared retribution against her other son, Millard, who was moved to Trousdale after Adam\u2019s death. She said prison gang members called, threatening to hurt Millard if she didn\u2019t pay thousands in protection money, which she did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t take a chance on getting my son killed,\u201d Spurgeon said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMany took a long road to a small settlement<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I feel unsafe at all times\u2019<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Lack of medical care played a role<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n