Report Gives Tennessee Prisons A Clean Bill, But Lawmakers Aren’t Satsified

The group brought in to audit Tennessee’s prisons says the system is being run effectively.But state lawmakers don’t seem convinced.  

The American Correctional Association visited five prisons over the course of three days last month. The review follows complaints of low morale, high turnover and unchecked violence in the state’s correctional system.

It came away with a concise, 6-page report. The recommendations include changing how guards are scheduled and adding new classifications for inmate misbehavior.
The move is meant to address claims that incidents of violence are being understated.

Guards say that’s been to make the prisons appear safer than they are. Prison officials say they’ve been reluctant to charge inmates with infractions that would add to their sentences.

The third-party audit also recommends switching to a 14-day schedule. Guards have complained that the current 28-day schedule has been less predictable and has cut their overtime pay.

The ACA’s Jeffrey Washington praised Tennessee’s prisons as clean and safe.

“The department has not had an escape since 2009,” he said at a hearing Wednesday. “That’s a goal of what you do.”

But state lawmakers questioned that claim. They noted that an inmate
escaped from a Northwest Tennessee work crew as recently as July.

ACA officials responded they meant only that no prisoners had jumped the wall in the past six years.

Sen. Ken Yager (R-Kingston) suggested to Richard Stalder, the retired Louisiana prison official who led the review, that his team’s methods were haphazard.

“You visited five sites. Why did you not visit the other eight prisons?”

“The limits of time,” Stalder said.

“I’m not sure I’m satisfied with that,” Yager replied.

Stalder defended the work. But he says its goal was to offer suggestions on how Tennessee prisons could improve, not deliver a verdict on how they’re run.