Amanda Haggard looks into the exit of the embattled commissioner of the state correction department and what the future holds.
In the past year, TSEA also questioned a state contract with CCA in Trousdale County, which opened in January. The contract allocated $276 million over the next five years to a 2,500-bed facility contracted through TDOC. The deal was sealed in July 2014 between the state and CCA, and the decision to close Charles Bass Correctional Complex came five months later. But after it was found this spring that the facility had severe staffing issues and had been placing inmates in segregation for no reason at all, the Trousdale County prison stopped accepting new inmates and sits at only 65 percent capacity.
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"No, we never said nothing is wrong," Haslam said in 2015. "We're reacting to people who said, 'You know we're in crisis situation here and the feds are getting ready to take over.' And I think what the [ACA] report shows is that's not where we are."
There still hasn't been a comprehensive audit of the state's prison system in the months since Haslam's statement.
Haslam has "just started the process of appointing a new commissioner for the Department of Correction and does not have a timetable on an announcement," Jennifer Donnals, Haslam's press secretary, said in an email.
The press release announcing Schofield's departure noted that he's been an integral voice in "shaping the governor's public safety agenda during the administration." Part of that shaping has been increasing the department's budget by quite a bit: The year Schofield started, TDOC spent nearly $679 million annually. In 2015, that budget had grown to more than $933 million.
Schofield and Haslam both said in the fall that the CCA contract isn't a sign that the state will look to privatize prisons. But with Haslam's recent push toward privatization of state services and the opening of another CCA facility after a state prison closes — all while the state's prison head resigns ... — could it be long before state prisons go private?
