State of Tennessee Responds to Prison Visitor’s Financial Claim, Misconduct Allegations

ADMITS TO TAKING CUSTODY OF KEYS BUT NOT THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE

by Sharon Rondeau

(Jul. 22, 2018) — A single mother employed by the State of Tennessee alleging mistreatment and more than $1,300 in expenses arising from her visit last Thanksgiving to a TDOC inmate has received an initial response after she filed a claim with the state’s Claim Commission earlier this year.

Last December, Jamonica Taylor told The Post & Email that unlike previous visits she had made to the Turney Center Industrial Complex (TCIX) in Only, TN, she was asked to leave her keys with a check-in officer before proceeding to visit an inmate in the company of her two young children.

Rather than acknowledging the hardship Taylor endured after the guard reported her keys missing and reimbursing her, the State of Tennessee is denying some of her allegations as the case proceeds to a formal hearing with the Commission.

In a two-page “answer” Taylor received in the mail last week, the State of Tennessee (defendant) admitted to many of Taylor’s claims but denied others.

While admitting that Taylor was told she could not take her keys with her to the visit, the state denied that “Corporal Neal told her to leave the keys ‘up front.'”  The defendant admitted that “Claimant left her keys with the front desk officers” and that “Claimant’s keys were placed in a drawer at the front desk” but denied that “Corporal Neal” had placed them there.

Of a total of 22 claims Taylor put forth, the defendant responded that it “lacks sufficient knowledge or information to form a belief as to the truth of the allegation…” in four instances while admitting to ten and denying eight.

The entire episode of November 23, 2017 cost Taylor $1,304 after she said she was told her keys could not be located.  As a result, Taylor said, she was forced to pay a locksmith twice to unlock her car, to have the car towed to her home and then to the nearby Toyota dealer for a new key to be manufactured.

She received no satisfaction from TDOC Commissioner Tony Parker nor TDOC spokeswoman Neysa Taylor, Jamonica Taylor said.  To our knowledge, she and the spokeswoman are not related.

She did not include in her claim time missed from work over the holiday weekend.

Taylor is a single mother of three who works with troubled youth for the State of Tennessee.  When she finally arrived home that day, her eldest, who had not joined the family on the visit, was able to provide her with a house key, Taylor said.

Taylor additionally told The Post & Email that because of the unexpected expenses arising from her nightmarish visit to the prison, she took a loan to buy her children the Christmas gifts they had wanted.

The defendant has denied that Assistant Warden of Security (AWS) Jason Clendenion “refused to let Claimant call her family, told Claimant and her children to get out of the prison and wait outside in the cold,” as she related to this writer in a telephone interview.