NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A private prison company abruptly dropped efforts to keep running a jail in Nashville, saying it won’t be used as a “punching bag” as city officials take steps to end the agreement on their own.
Damon Hininger, CEO of Tennessee-based CoreCivic, informed Nashville-Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall in a letter Monday that the company will provide a 90-day transition plan for the Metro-Davidson County Detention Facility.
The company has spent nearly three decades running the facility, which houses state inmates under a contract with the Tennessee Department of Correction. The facility houses felons convicted to one to six years, making it more like a prison, Hall said. The state covers the costs and the county acts as a pass-through, Hall added.
At a news conference last week, Nashville council members Freddie O’Connell and Emily Benedict introduced a proposal to drop the CoreCivic contract, which costs $18 million a year, and have the sheriff’s office operating the jail starting in July 2022. Benedict said the decision would remove the city from doing business with a multibillion-dollar company that profits off incarceration.
Sheriff Daron Hall said the change would be “a philosophical one, not performance based,” saying the company has consistently met contractual requirements at the facility that can house more than 1,300 inmates. But the sheriff said he’s confident the budget impact to Nashville would be minimal aside from a $5 million startup cost, which would include paying for various equipment, supplies, furniture and other items.