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Tennessee Correction Department requests $13M pay increase for embattled private-prison operator

File photo by John Partipilo / Tennessee Lookout
The Core Civic offices in Brentwood, Tennessee, are pictured in this 2024 file photo. The Tennessee Department of Correction is asking to add $13 million to its budget for CoreCivic, despite a federal civil rights investigation into the private prison company. — File photo by John Partipilo / Tennessee Lookout The Core Civic offices in Brentwood, Tennessee, are pictured in this 2024 file photo. The Tennessee Department of Correction is asking to add $13 million to its budget for CoreCivic, despite a federal civil rights investigation into the private prison company. File photo by John Partipilo / Tennessee Lookout The Core Civic offices in Brentwood, Tennessee, are pictured in this 2024 file photo. The Tennessee Department of Correction is asking to add $13 million to its budget for CoreCivic, despite a federal civil rights investigation into the private prison company.

By Sam Stockard / Tennessee Lookout November 6, 2025 3 min read

Tennessee’s Department of Correction is seeking a $13 million contract increase for the state’s private-prison company amid questions about a riot and federal civil rights investigation.

Correction Commissioner Frank Strada did not mention the boost for Brentwood-based CoreCivic during Tuesday budget hearings with Gov. Bill Lee. But it is part of an $86 million increase the department is requesting for fiscal 2026-27, which would push its annual operating budget to $1.57 billion.

Strada, who has repeatedly called CoreCivic a state “partner,” said afterward the contract increase is necessary to deal with the “inflationary costs built into the contract” with the prison operator, in addition to “parity” for CoreCivic staff that would enable it to match Department of Correction pay. It would bump the private company’s contracts to a total of $243 million next year.

“We want to make sure they have adequate staffing just like we do because they’re a partner in this process,” Strada said.