This story is an installment in The Tennessean's Q&A series On the Issues, where we asked the leading gubernatorial candidates to weigh in on some of the most pressing issues Tennessee’s next governor will face.
Private for-profit prison operator CoreCivic runs four state prisons in Tennessee, where death rates are higher than in state-run prisons
. Tennesseeroutinely fines CoreCivic millions of dollars for contract violations but approves itscontract increase every year despite chronic staffing and compliance failures.Trousdale Turner Correctional Center has been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice since 2024, after reports of chronic understaffing,violence andcontraband, andsexual misconduct allegations.
An inmate who overdosed
at Trousdale was this year counted as alive for days while lying dead in his cell. Separately, a Morgan County corrections officer was stabbed to death this year after local guards raised an alarm about malfunctioning locks in the prison, which the Tennessee Department of Correction had been aware of but failed to correct.
We got responses from all four candidates polling over 1%: Republican nominee U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Democratic nominee Jerri Green, independent candidate David Hatley and independent candidate Lauren Pinkston.
We asked each candidate whether they support the state's relationship with CoreCivic. Here's what they said.
Are Tennessee taxpayers well served by CoreCivic? And as governor would it be your intent to continue contracting with CoreCivic, despite the company’s chronic breaches of contract?
BLACKBURN: Tennessee is a law-and-order state, and running a capable prison system is an important part of that. As in any public-private partnership, it is important to have oversight to ensure that private companies are meeting the standards, while giving them the freedom to handle operations at a level of efficiency that cannot be achieved within the government. Make no mistake, I will be tough on crime — including crime that occurs inside of our prisons. All Tennessee prisons should be held to high standards that ensure the safety of inmates. But I also believe that we must deliver justice for the victims of crime.
GREEN: No. Tennessee taxpayers are being completely shortchanged and in many cases, put in danger by CoreCivic, which has a horrific record of chronic understaffing, federal civil rights investigations and deadly safety failures. There have been documented instances of inmates left dead in their cells for days, and guards killed because of broken or faulty locks. As governor, I would not continue rewarding a company with such a history of chronic failures and contract breaches that puts lives at risk for corporate profit.
PINKSTON: No, I don't believe taxpayers are being well served. Since 2022, the state has fined CoreCivic more than $45 million, mostly for understaffing its prisons, and the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Trousdale Turner over violence and deaths there. Even so, the Department of Correction has asked for a $13 million increase that would bring CoreCivic's state contracts to about $243 million. When a company repeatedly fails to meet the terms of its contract, the answer shouldn't be to pay it more. As governor, I won't renew or expand CoreCivic's contracts. I'll order a full independent review of costs, staffing and safety, comparing CoreCivic's facilities to state-run prisons, and I'll publish the results. Then we'll build a responsible plan to bring those prisons back under state management, so we don't create a crisis for staff, inmates or the communities around these facilities. When prisons make profit, our judicial integrity is threatened. Public safety and taxpayer dollars are too important to hand to a company that keeps breaking its promises.
HATLEY: No, they are not. A prison contractor fined tens of millions of dollars by the state and renewed anyway is exactly what’s wrong with how Tennessee does business. I’d have my independent state auditor take a very close look at CoreCivic, because Tennessee should be getting more for its tax dollars, and consider every option for saving the state money, including a new operator or a complete state takeover. I’d also ban campaign contributions from significant state contractors, their owners, their senior officers and the PACs they control while they’re seeking or performing state work, end no-bid contracts outside documented emergencies, and post every contract, amendment and payment online.
What would you do to address the higher rate of inmate casualties in CoreCivic-run facilities?
GREEN: We need strict state oversight, mandatory staffing minimums and direct accountability. When private corporations cut corners on safety to pad their profit margins, people die. If a private prison operator cannot maintain basic safety and human dignity, the state should bring those facilities back under public management where accountability actually exists.
PINKSTON: Every person in a Tennessee prison is the state's responsibility, whether the building is run by the state or a contractor. Right now, people in CoreCivic facilities are dying at higher rates than those in state-run prisons, and comptroller audits have found a homicide rate at Trousdale Turner double that of state facilities. Fiscal year 2022-23 data shows a death rate about 47% higher at CoreCivic facilities. That is unacceptable. The root problem is staffing. In 2023, auditors found Trousdale Turner left 57% of its posts unfilled. As governor, I will work with our attorney general to require CoreCivic to repay damages for unfulfilled contracts and begin moving Tennessee out of private prison contracts, just as Texas has done. I will also ensure that families of CoreCivic residents have full access to their rights in bringing complaints against failed obligations from state contracts. If a private prison is more dangerous than a state prison at all, we should act. As these changes are negotiated, I'll publish death and violence data for every facility, every quarter, so families and taxpayers can see the results for themselves.
HATLEY: The audit is where it starts. The state auditor will have the authority to run forensic and performance audits, subpoena records and testimony, and protect whistleblowers who come forward, with public tracking of whether problems actually get fixed. If an operator can’t keep people safe, every option is on the table, including a new operator or a complete state takeover.
Blackburn did not respond.
Tennessee’s treasury holds CoreCivic stock. Is it ethical for Tennessee residents to profit from the company that routinely fails to keep inmates safe by routinely failing to properly staff facilities?
GREEN: No, it is fundamentally unethical. The state of Tennessee should never be in the business of profiting off a private prison system that compromises safety and fails to protect correctional officers and inmates. We need a government that values human life over corporate profit.
PINKSTON: It's a conflict of interest for the state to be CoreCivic's customer, its regulator and its investor at the same time. When the state profits from a company's stock price, it's harder to hold that company accountable for failing to staff its prisons and keep people safe. To be clear, the governor doesn't manage these investments. They're overseen by the state treasurer and the boards responsible for our retirement funds, which have a legal duty to protect the pensions of teachers, state workers and first responders. I respect that duty. But as governor, I'll ask the treasurer and the retirement board to review our CoreCivic holdings and to adopt a clear policy that the state should not invest in companies it contracts with while those companies are under federal investigation or repeatedly breaking their contracts with Tennessee. We can protect retirees and avoid profiting from failures we're supposed to be fixing.
HATLEY: No. Tennessee shouldn’t own stock in a company it repeatedly fines. Government shouldn’t own stock in private companies it does business with, and Tennessee has seen firsthand that CoreCivic is a bad company and a bad investment.
Blackburn did not respond.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: On the Issues: What's next for CoreCivic under new governor?
