Inspectors finish visits to TN prisons
Inspectors finished their visits to a handful of Tennessee prisons Wednesday, conducting the review requested by state officials after reports from The Tennessean and other media led to legislative hearings focused on staffing and safety concerns throughout the prison system.
Three people from the American Correctional Association, a national organization that provides accreditation to state prison systems, visited five facilities at the request of the Tennessee Department of Correction. James Gondles, executive director of the ACA, participated in the review and said they spoke with "scores and scores" of staff members and inmates.
The review was officially supposed to include stops at three prisons and cost $7,922. Gondles said Thursday he expects the ACA will have a report ready for the state within one week, but declined to provide further details from the inspections.
The visits come amid reports of understaffing, reportedly caused in part by a new scheduling system, which correctional officers say creates unduly unsafe working conditions.
"The department has set no restrictions on them, and the inspectors themselves are setting their schedule at each facility. They are reviewing staffing patterns, vacancies and incident reporting," said Alison Randgaard, Department of Correction spokeswoman.
The inspectors visited Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, West Tennessee State Penitentiary in Henning and Bledsoe County Correctional Complex for "scheduled in-depth reviews," Randgaard said. They also visited DeBerry Special Needs Facility and Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, both in Nashville, for additional visits.
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The visits also come as lawmakers and correctional officers question whether the ACA will provide an adequate inspection of the prison. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Stewart, D-Nashville, pointed to previous inspection records and payments the state made to prepare for other ACA inspections before calling the ACA a "rubber stamp for business as usual."
Gondles and state Commissioner Derrick Schofield have defended the veracity of inspections. But information obtained by The Tennessean shows 14 officers were held over to work a double shift on Monday, during the ACA's inspection of the facility.A source also told The Tennessean an additional 20 on-the-job training officers worked an irregular shift at the facility, also during the same time as the ACA inspection.
Randgaard wouldn't confirm the specifics of the DeBerry schedule.
"However ... at each prison we hold staff over on an as-needed basis. That has not changed at any facility before, during or after the inspections," Randgaard said.
"OJT (on the job training) staffers are by definition, training on the job. This means they are at the facility at which they were hired, which could be any facility. They can be scheduled to work any post at any time. To put it simply, if someone is hired at DeBerry, Morgan County or anywhere else, that is where he or she will do OJT."
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Although there have been issues reported throughout the prison system, many reports of violence and understaffing have originated from these five prisons. Specifically, staff at West Tennessee and DeBerry have consistently warned about inadequate staffing levels and the safety issues that can arise from those problems.
Randgaard said the state expects the ACA to provide the results of their inspection within a month, although there's no set timeframe for the report. Once the state receives the report, Randgaard said the department will make it available to the public.
Reach Dave Boucher at 615-259-8892 and on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.
