Fights at Tennessee prison kill 1 inmate and injure 5 others

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A Tennessee inmate has died and five others were injured after fights erupted at a privately run state prison, the facility's operator said.

The fights broke out early Saturday at Hardeman County Correctional Facility in Whiteville, according to Brian Todd, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, the company that runs the prison. Todd said the altercations were separate but likely related.

Todd said staffers intervened to break up the fights and provided emergency medical treatment until paramedics could arrive. Six inmates were taken to hospitals, where one of them was pronounced dead.

Two remained hospitalized on Wednesday and three others were treated and returned to the prison, Todd said. No prison staff members were injured.

The Tennessee Department of Correction's Office of Investigations and Conduct is handling the ongoing investigation, Todd said.

Another of the four prisons run by CoreCivic in Tennessee, Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, is the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation after years of “reports of physical assaults, sexual assaults, murders and unchecked flow of contraband and severe staffing shortages,” according to U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis.

It's unclear whether the upcoming change of administration to President-elect Donald Trump will affect the completion of that investigation.

Tennessee’s corrections agency has fined CoreCivic $37.7 million across four prisons since 2016, including for understaffing violations. Records obtained by The Associated Press also show the company has spent more than $4.4 million to settle about 80 lawsuits and out-of-court complaints alleging mistreatment — including at least 22 inmate deaths — at four Tennessee prisons and two jails since 2016.

The Brentwood, Tennessee-based company has said the corrections industry generally has had staffing issues and has pointed to CoreCivic’s hiring incentives and strategies to backfill with workers from other facilities nationally.

Last month, Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada told a panel of lawmakers that CoreCivic has been a “very good partner for the state” that helps with “population management," noting that the department staffs people at CoreCivic facilities to monitor them.