REFERS TO THANKSGIVING DAY INCIDENT AS “BRUTAL GANG WAR”
by Anonymous Inmate, Trousdale Turner Correctional Center (TTCC)
(Dec. 14, 2016) — [Editor’s Note: The following letter was received on Friday, December 9, from an inmate not previously heard from who is housed at the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center (TTCC) in Hartsville, TN. The information he provided echoes that of dozens of others who have contacted The Post & Email over a number of months about the substandard conditions within the facility, which is owned and operated by a private corporation, CoreCivic.
While technically Tennessee’s privately-run prisons are overseen by the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC), the conditions at TTCC do not appear to have improved since complaints arose in the early spring and which have been conveyed to TDOC spokeswoman Neysa Taylor. Frequent citations include cold and poorly-prepared meals; a lack of basic hygienic supplies; unquelled gang activity and domination over other inmates; excessive use of force on the part of correction officers; lack of medical care and dispensing of prescription medications; severe short-staffing; limited or no access to the law library; a lack of customary inmate employment opportunities; hours-long waiting periods for relatives arriving on visitation days to see their loved ones; thefts and beatings: and a reported gang fight or “riot” on Thanksgiving Day which Taylor has denied occurred.
Taylor has insisted that the complaints we have received about the conditions at TTCC are “inaccurate.” However, the author of the letter described a Thanksgiving Day incident as a “brutal gang war, where at least eleven men were stabbed” (bottom of page 2).
An internal memo written by CoreCivic Chief of Security Andrew Jones to TTCC Assistant Warden Jerry Wardlow dated December 2, 2016 enclosed with the inmate’s letter validates other reports The Post & Email has received from inmates’ relatives claiming that a violent incident occurred at TTCC on Thanksgiving.
The Post & Email has obliterated the source of the memo referenced on page 3 as well as two non-family-friendly terms which he reported staff use when referring to the prisoners.
The dark lines are not strikeouts, but rather emanate from the folds in the paper on which the letter was written.]
