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Ex-warden: Violent prisoners reclassified to save money

Anita Wadhwani
USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee
Retired warden Jerry Lester accused TDOC Commissioner Derrick Schofield of reclassifying dangerous prisons to mix them with the general population, increasing violence in TN prisons.

A retired prison warden on Friday said a decision by Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Derrick Schofield to reclassify maximum-security prisoners and integrate them with the medium-security population as a cost-saving measure has increased violence directed at both inmates and officers in state prisons.

At a news conference, retired warden Jerry Lester provided a PowerPoint that he said was presented by Schofield in 2012 first outlining the plan in Morgan County and later implemented statewide.

The plan included reclassifying maximum-security prisoners deemed dangerous enough to be in their cells 23 hours per day and require two guards to escort them as "close" security prisoners, a step down from maximum security. Close-security prisoners are kept in small pods of 24, and only half are allowed in communal areas at once. Lester said wardens were then directed to reclassify close-security prisoners again, designate them as medium-security prisoners and place them in the general population where there is just one guard for every 128 prisoners.

When assaults against staff and inmates began to increase as a result, the department reclassified "assaults" as provocations to avoid documenting the increase in violence, Lester said.

Lester said the situation in Tennessee prisons in now "unmanageable."

The department has been under scrutiny for staffing, security problems and reports of violence that have led to legislative hearings and calls for an independent review of Tennessee prisons. A Tennessean investigation on Sunday chronicled the 2013 death of an inmate in West Tennessee State Penitentiary. Elbert Thornton's death was called natural by correction officials despite a medical examiner's report that called it "suspicious, unusual or unnatural" and an autopsy that listed the cause of death as "multiple blunt force traumatic and thermal injuries."

Among the latest incidents were two separate assaults in West Tennessee State Penitentiary on Thursday. In one incident, two prisoners reportedly entered a cell, beat and robbed another inmate then stabbed him in the arm with a shank. In another incident later that afternoon, another prisoner was assaulted and had to be airlifted by to a regional hospital. On Friday, West Tennessee State Penitentiary was placed on lock-down. Correction officials said they were conducting a "routine search" of the facility.

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According to a statement released by a Department of Correction spokeswoman, the department did reassess prisoners' classifications. A review found some inmates had been placed on the highest level of segregation for nonviolent offenses and there was a disparity in the racial make-up of those placed in maximum security. Wardens were then directed to meet with each prisoner to determine if they were able to reclassify them. More than 90 percent of inmates were successfully reintegrated into the general population, the statement said.

"This was not a cost-saving measure," the statement said. "This was an effective, strategic part of the department's management of the offender population."

The PowerPoint presentation given to reporters on Friday made clear that cost was a consideration in reclassifying prisoners. On one slide, titled "Impacts," the first bullet reads "COST SAVINGS - Reduce close custody units staffed at a 2:2:1 to a 1:1:1; savings of 3.4 officers per pod."

"The driving force is money," Lester said. "We as wardens were directed to integrate them into medium populations ... where they continued their predatory behavior among inmates who simply wanted to do their time and go home."

The move to reclassify prisoners has led to an increase in violence and instability at prisons across the state, said state Rep. Mike Stewart, D-Nashville, who organized Friday's news conference. The turmoil could prompt federal oversight, like there was in the 1980s when federal authorities noted similar misclassifications in the state's prisons and conditions so unsafe they were considered cruel and unusual punishment, he said. That federal oversight cost taxpayers $300 million, Stewart said.

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Between 2012 and 2014, the number of prisoners classified as maximum security dropped by nearly half, from 1,019  to 514, according to TDOC annual reports. Maximum-security prisoners are the most expensive to guard.

Lester, who retired from his post, said he was also pressured to sign a memo while warden at West Tennessee State Prison to reclassify certain dangerous prisoners to be able to include them in the medium-security population.

The move placed potentially dangerous prisoners with the "rest of the population who became victims of assault, strong-armed robbery, found themselves in the middle of gang activity... and rape," Lester said. "Not to mention staff assaults and things staff are subject to while they're trying to run a closed security unit."

Lester said well-behaved prisoners would also lose momentum on gaining their GED because frequent lockdowns would cause them to miss assignments, and missing a certain number of days of GED education requires prisoners to start again. On Friday, for example, West Tennessee State Penitentiary was on lockdown since the morning. A spokeswoman said it was on lockdown for a routine search.

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Reach Anita Wadhwani at 615-259-8092 or on Twitter @AnitaWadhwani.