TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Oct 5, 2022

More than two dozen people have died of overdoses behind bars in Tennessee this year with 12 happening at private prisons run by Brentwood-based CoreCivic. Lawsuits blame understaffing and easily available drugs, Nashville Public Radio reports. In one case, guards did not find the inmate’s body for hours, saying the lack of cell checks was because they were understaffed. Family members wonder if the overdose could have been reversed, had their loved one been found sooner. Last year, 49 people died of overdoses—nearly all of them from fentanyl—while incarcerated in Tennessee.