Prison operator under federal scrutiny spent millions settling Tennessee mistreatment claims

[October 14, 2024]  By JONATHAN MATTISE, TRAVIS LOLLER and KRISTIN M. HALL

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The leading private prison company in the U.S. has spent more than $4.4 million to settle dozens of complaints alleging mistreatment — including at least 22 inmate deaths — at its Tennessee prisons and jails since 2016.

More than $1.1 million of those payouts involved Tennessee's largest prison, the long-scrutinized Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, which is now under federal investigation.

Details of nearly 80 settlements provided to The Associated Press through public records requests allege brutal beatings, medical neglect and cruelty at CoreCivic's four prisons and two jails in Tennessee.

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' aid at the chronically understaffed facility, the suit claims. Childress' family received a $135,000 settlement.

The family's attorney, Daniel Horwitz, was ordered by a judge to stop publicly disparaging CoreCivic and to take down tweets calling it a “death factory.” He is suing over the gag order.

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 “reports of physical assaults, sexual assaults, murders and unchecked flow of contraband and severe staffing shortages,” U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis has said.

“It does certainly appear as though settling lawsuits is a cost of doing business, rather than an alarm, a wake-up call, a siren,” said Mary Price, general counsel of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, which advocated for the Trousdale investigation.

CoreCivic, headquartered in Brentwood, Tenn., has a value of $1.44 billion as measured by market capitalization.

Many took a long road to a small settlement

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.

The largest settlement was for $900,000 over a South Central Correctional Facility inmate’s suicide where staff falsified records. Three others were for about $300,000 apiece.

But those payouts were the exception. Half the settlements were for $12,500 or less. Some involved no money at all.

“In 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’ve 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,” said Ashley Dixon, a whistleblower who worked less than a year as a Trousdale corrections officer.

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's hiring incentives and strategies to backfill with workers from other facilities nationally. He said CoreCivic facilities offer “comprehensive medical and mental health care” and are closely monitored by the state.

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.

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.

‘I feel unsafe at all times’

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.

Trousdale Turner Correctional Center operated by CoreCivic is seen Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in Hartsville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Adrian Delk received a $120,000 settlement after seven gang members nearly beat him to death for “between 20 minutes and one hour” with no one to intervene at Hardeman in 2016, according to his lawsuit. He was later stabbed and beaten again, suffering several permanent injuries.

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's antipsychotic medication as punishment for illegal drug use.

In a 2023 state audit, a guard noted: “While at Trousdale, I feel unsafe at all times.”

Leventis, the U.S. attorney, noted that Tennessee has known of problems at its CoreCivic facilities. The state’s 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, 2020 and 2023.

Yet state leaders have consistently downplayed the problems and renewed contracts with CoreCivic, a company that figures prominently in political spending. Tennessee is CoreCivic’s 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.

“CoreCivic has been a very important partner to the state,” Republican Gov. Bill Lee told reporters after the Trousdale investigation announcement.

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.

“She just told you about a death in one of our facilities, and we're going to cut her off?” replied Democratic Rep. Bo Mitchell, prompting applause.

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.

“I think it’s very sad that it’s a small amount that they receive, because those people’s lives were worth much more than that,” Dixon told the AP after learning about the settlements.

Lack of medical care played a role

Many of the settled cases claim inmates were denied basic preventive care — 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.

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.

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.

Cockrill's mother received a $45,000 settlement.

Kathy Spurgeon’s 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's condition and he was denied medication, despite her requests.

Spurgeon didn’t sue CoreCivic because she feared retribution against her other son, Millard, who was moved to Trousdale after Adam’s death. She said prison gang members called, threatening to hurt Millard if she didn’t pay thousands in protection money, which she did.

“I couldn’t take a chance on getting my son killed,” Spurgeon said.

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