The NAACP wants a federal investigation into a local prison they say is unsafe and poorly managed

Nashville’s chapter of the NAACP is urging the state to shut down a private prison that has been sanctioned in the past for staffing shortages and unsafe conditions.

The group says it has received many complaints from people inside Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, especially Black men. Some said they had been denied medical treatment or rides to their court dates while others said they were sleeping on bloody mattresses with no sheets.

Local NAACP President Sheryl Guinn wants a federal investigation into the prison and says she wants it to be closed down.

At a press conference Thursday, Guinn noted that Nashville’s 37208 zip code once had the highest incarceration rate in the country and that many of the men in the facility are from there.

“These are our children that are there at Trousdale,” she said. “And all we are asking — and really we shouldn’t have to beg for this; this is really something they should already be doing — is treating our men, treating the men that are housed there, with basic dignity and respect.”

Trousdale Turner is the largest and newest prison in the state. Since it opened in 2016, it has frequently come under scrutiny. The state fined CoreCivic, the company that runs the prison, more than $2 million after a 2017 audit uncovered dangerously low staffing levels. In 2020, auditors found the facility was still struggling to recruit and retain employees.

Early on in the pandemic, the prison also became one of the most highly concentrated hot spots for the coronavirus in the entire country, when more than 1,200 people living and working in the facility tested positive for COVID-19.

Trousdale Turner is one of four Tennessee prisons managed by CoreCivic, one of the country’s largest private correctional companies, which is based in Brentwood. A recent WPLN News analysis found that the four facilities had accounted for nearly all homicides within state prisons in the past fives years, even though they only house about a third of Tennessee’s prisoners. Critics have accused the company of putting profits over safety.

CoreCivic disputes those allegations. In an emailed statement, spokesperson Ryan Gustin called the NAACP’s claims “inaccurate and misinformed.” He said Trousdale Turner provides “comprehensive medical and mental health care” and “respects the dignity of every individual entrusted to our care.” Gustin also said anyone with concerns can report them through an anonymous hotline.

But state Sen. Brenda Gilmore wants the U.S. Department of Justice to be the one investigating complaints, not CoreCivic.

“These men have made poor choices in life,” she said. “They still deserve to be treated as humans.”