Fighting at Tennessee prison leaves one inmate dead and five others injured

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee inmate has died and five others were injured after fighting broke out at a private state prison, the prison’s operator said.

The fighting broke out early Saturday at the Hardeman County Correctional Facility in Whiteville, said Brian Todd, a spokesman for CoreCivic, the company that runs the prison. Todd said the arguments were unrelated but likely related.

Todd said staffers intervened to break up the fighting and provided emergency medical care until paramedics could arrive. Six prisoners were taken to hospitals, where one of them was pronounced dead.

Two remained hospitalized Wednesday and three others were treated and returned to jail, Todd said. No prison staff were injured.

The Tennessee Department of Correction’s Office of Investigations and Conduct is handling the ongoing investigation, Todd said.

Another of the four prisons run by CoreCivic in Tennessee, the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, is the subject of an investigation by the US Department of Justice after years of “reports of physical violence, sexual violence, homicides and an uncontrolled flow of contraband and severe staffing shortages,” according to U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis.

It is unclear whether the upcoming change of administration to newly elected President Donald Trump will affect the completion of that investigation.

The Tennessee Department of Corrections has fined CoreCivic $37.7 million at four prisons since 2016, including for staffing violations. Records obtained by The Associated Press also show the company has done so spent more than $4.4 million to settle approximately 80 lawsuits and out-of-court complaints of abuse — including the deaths of at least 22 inmates — at four Tennessee prisons and two prisons since 2016.

The Brentwood, Tennessee-based company has said the corrections industry overall has had staffing issues and pointed to CoreCivic’s hiring incentives and strategies to supplement with employees from other national facilities.

Last month, Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada told a panel of lawmakers that CoreCivic has been a “very good partner for the state” helping with “population management,” noting that the department staffs people at CoreCivic facilities to monitor them.