When Tennessee lawmakers adopted a new $52.8 billion state budget on April 18, 2024, it hiked outlays for the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to $233 million, a $9.8 million increase that mostly went to private prison giant CoreCivic, which operates four of the state’s 15 prisons. Yet just months earlier, both CoreCivic and DOC were called out in a performance audit released by the state Comptroller of the Treasury on December 12, 2023.

The report, which covered a four-­year period ending July 31, 2023, found significant deficiencies at the state lockups, the most serious related to understaffing, lack of sufficient rehabilitative programs and violations of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).

With regard to staffing, auditors found both DOC and CoreCivic faced “an ongoing and deeply rooted challenge of attrition” that left DOC with 30% of guard positions vacant—42% in CoreCivic prisons. In fact, state officials assessed $10.8 million in liquidated damages against CoreCivic from July 2020 to June 2022 for failing to meet required staffing levels.

Along with high staff vacancies, the turnover rate for DOC guards averaged 37%. At CoreCivic lockups, the rate was an astounding 146%—including the state’s highest rate, 188%, at the firm’s Trousdale Turner Correctional Center (TTCC). Its contract with DOC limits CoreCivic to a maximum turnover rate of 50%, which would mean that every other guard was on the job a year or less; TTCC’s sky-­high rate lowered that average tenure to just months. As auditors noted, that “touch[es] upon the fundamental aspects of safety, security, rehabilitation, operational efficiency, financial stability, public perception, legal compliance, and recruiting.”

Based on five site visits conducted in 2023, auditors found that three prisons were unable to staff more than 40% of their assigned posts; TTCC failed to staff 57% of its posts, including 20% of those designated “critical.” Overtime is regularly used to keep guard positions filled; almost 90% of DOC employees worked overtime in 2023, collecting $51.4 million in overtime pay—including an “augmentee program” that allows non-­security employees to volunteer to staff security posts at overtime rates. The audit determined that if DOC hired enough staff to fill its 662 guard positions currently vacant statewide, the annual cost would be $3.4 million less than its overtime expense.

The knockoff effects of these problems included reduced rehabilitative and reentry services. The report found that due to “limited capacity and lengthy waitlists,” many offenders could not access programs such as ABE/GED classes and college courses, nor cognitive behavior and therapeutic community programs. The cognitive behavior program had a capacity of 695 and a waitlist of 8,581 prisoners, for example, meaning many were released before they could benefit from it. In fact, auditors found, many were released without receiving even basic reentry services and vital documents such as birth certificates and state-­issued IDs, in violation of DOC policy.

To address these staffing and retention problems, prison officials have stepped up advertising, job fairs and recruitment efforts, while also raising starting guard pay to about $44,500 annually, on top of a $5,000 sign-­on bonus, a $1,000 recruitment bonus and a $4,000 retention bonus for employees at DOC facilities. CoreCivic has offered $3,000 referral bonuses.

Noncompliance with Prison Rape Elimination Act

Auditors were also concerned by DOC’s failure to ensure that annual PREA screenings were conducted to prevent sexual abuse. The audit identified 34 potential sexual aggressors who shared a cell with potential sexual abuse victims, in violation of PREA standards; of those, 26 were at CoreCivic lockups.

DOC received 659 PREA allegations between July 2021 and April 2023, including 76 that were substantiated. However, prison officials did not always conduct proper investigations into PREA incidents. In 15 cases, CoreCivic employees closed sexual abuse investigations before receiving rape kit results. A review of 120 sample PREA case files found one or more mistakes in 28—a 23% error rate. Another review of 28 substantiated PREA allegations of prisoner-­on-­prisoner sexual misconduct found 74% of the aggressors did not receive disciplinary sanctions. In four substantiated cases of PREA violations by staff members, prison officials “either did not take disciplinary action against the employees or did not document the action taken.”

The audit report identified sundry other problems, including insufficient staffing by DOC’s private medical services contractor, Centurion of Tennessee, LLC. Between January 2020 and November 2022, state officials assessed $5.7 million in liquidated damages against the company for staff vacancies in violation of its contract. Staff lapses at two CoreCivic facilities left no documentation that medications had been provided in 32% of the prisoner medical files reviewed.

Additionally, the audit noted that DOC was operating at 91.4% of its 20,503-­bed capacity and recommended using 3,149 “inactive” beds so that thousands of state prisoners held in county jails could be moved to DOC facilities. Further, DOC needed to replace its antiquated electronic offender management system, called TOMIS—a process that is pending, according to state officials. In its annual Financial Integrity Act Risk Assessments, DOC also failed to identify risks related to the deficiencies identified in the audit, the report noted. DOC officials concurred with the recommendations and promised that remedial actions had been and will continue to be taken. See: TDOC Performance Audit Report, Tenn. Comptroller of the Treasury (Dec. 2023).  

Additional sources: Nashville Tennessean, Tennessee Lookout