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32-586: The first Tennessee State Penitentiary, located on what is now 15th Avenue between Church Street and Charlotte Avenue, became operational on January 1, 1831 with 200 cells, a warden's residence, and a hospital. Modeled after the Auburn Penitentiary in both discipline and design, the prison was the first of its kind in Tennessee and the South. Inmates were subject to policies and practices championed by

64-566: A Confederate sympathizer whose West Nashville property would later be purchased for the construction of the new prison. Following the Civil War, the percentage of black inmates in the state of Tennessee increased dramatically, from roughly 5% of the prison's population prior to the Civil War to about 62% in 1869. The proportion of black women in prison was significantly higher to black men in relation to whites, with all female prisoners in Tennessee in 1868 being African American women. Every convict

96-506: A group of inmates seized control of the segregated white wing and held it for eighteen hours before surrendering. In 1907 several convicts commandeered a switch engine and drove it through a prison gate. In 1938 inmates staged a mass escape. Several serious fires ignited at the penitentiary, including one that destroyed the main dining room. Riots occurred in 1975 and 1985. In 1989, the Tennessee Department of Correction opened

128-556: A group of inmates, some of whom had obtained guns in the July riot and concealed them in the interim. This uprising caused the death of Principal Keeper George A. Durnford as well as eight prisoners. Three inmates were later charged, convicted, and executed at Sing Sing for their roles in the riots. On November 4, 1970, inmates succeeded in seizing control of the facility and held 50 people, including guards and outside construction workers, hostage for more than eight hours. The incident

160-454: A hand on the shoulder of the man in front of him to maintain a rigid separation. There was a communal dining room so that the prisoners could gather together for meals, but a code of silence was enforced harshly at all times by the guards. Thus the inmates worked and ate together, but in complete silence. At night the prisoners were kept in individual cells (even though the original plan called for double cells). For several decades, this system

192-683: A new penitentiary, the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution at Nashville. The second Tennessee State Penitentiary closed in June 1992. As part of the settlement in a class action suit, Grubbs v. Bradley (1982), the Federal Court issued a permanent injunction in 1993, prohibiting the Tennessee Department of Correction from ever again housing inmates at the Tennessee State Prison. After it

224-402: A single inmate. In addition, an administration building and other smaller buildings for offices, warehouses, and factories were built within the 20 ft high (6.1 m), 3 ft thick (0.91 m) rock walls. The plan also provided for a working farm outside the walls and mandated a separate system for younger offenders to isolate them from older, hardened criminals. A separate women's wing

256-465: A state of disrepair and equipped with plumbing that is dangerous to the prisoner's health. These environmental conditions range from bad to shocking, and clearly have a deleterious impact upon the lives of the inmates housed there. Violence at the prison is rampant, including frequent episodes of assault and sexual attack upon cellmates. With the pervasive idleness, inmates have few alternatives but to sit in their tiny cells and brood.   The conclusion

288-495: Is about a man who is going to be executed in the electric chair at Farnworth praying to God for forgiveness for committing a murder. Johnny Cash recorded the live album A Concert Behind Prison Walls there in 1974 with special guests Linda Ronstadt , Roy Clark , and Foster Brooks . Auburn Correctional Facility Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison on State Street in Auburn, New York , United States. It

320-411: Is inescapable that TSP units I-VI are inadequate to properly house and provide for the current population. The court finds those units to be so severely overcrowded as to be offensive to any notion of basic human decency. In addition, since overcrowding is a primary cause of all of the most serious problems at TSP, and is in turn made worse by the conditions it causes, the only effective remedy is to reduce

352-470: The Auburn model, such as "during the day the prisoners, with downcast eyes, labored silently together in workshops, while at night they slept alone in separate cells. Under no circumstances could they communicate with one another, and only when necessity demanded could they receive letters or calls from relatives and friends." The prison housed both men and women, with the first male inmate registered in 1831 and

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384-461: The Auburn prison. The prisoners had their heads closely cropped when they entered the prison. Prisoners' heads, mustaches, and beards would be shaved, then they would be stripped and dunked in water before receiving their prison uniform. Then, the prison clerk questioned each prisoner and recorded their answers in the prison register. Questions included personal information like height, age, place of birth, and family background, but also questions about

416-490: The charges made against the prisoner. The final step of the intake procedure involved questioning new prisoners about their previous work so they could be assigned to a specific shop within the prison. Once assigned to a shop, prisoners were forced to work, supporting the financial needs of the prison. After the prisoner's intake procedure was complete, and once inside the prison, prisoners were forced to walk in lockstep , keeping step with their heads bowed. Each prisoner placed

448-447: The children's admittance fee was half the price. Tourists would be escorted through the prison's factory floors and observe prisoners at work directly, or escorted through tunnels, and remain out of sight, allowing tourists to watch prisoners while they labored. The Auburn Prison attracted enormous amounts of tourists in the middle of the nineteenth century, which added to the town's local economy and service industries. In contrast with

480-431: The convict-leasing system. The state also contracted with private companies to operate factories inside the prison walls using convict labor. A women's wing was opened in 1892 but overcrowding soon forced the men and women to be housed together. The design for a proposed new prison called for the construction of a Gothic, fortress-like structure. The second Tennessee prison contained 800 small cells, each designed to house

512-541: The first female inmate registered in 1840. In 1863, the Union Army took control of the penitentiary and used it as a military prison. Under Union occupation , the prison population tripled and conditions worsened. Convicts were leased to the federal government by the Occupation Government of Tennessee to help repay their mounting debts. Among the prisoners held during this time was Mark R. Cockrill ,

544-662: The iconic statue and reading "Save Copper John's Johnson"; but the statue was nonetheless removed, his penis was filed off, and remounted in August. The warden was an administrative position appointed by the New York State Commissioner of Correction . Currently, the heads of all New York State correctional facilities are termed "superintendent". The principal keeper operated the prison on a day-to-day basis. Many went on to become wardens. Leland Clure Morton Too Many Requests If you report this error to

576-432: The new facility, creating a physical link from 1831 to the present.   At TSP, housing units I-VI are unconscionably overcrowded. Inmates are double celled in tiny cages like so many animals in a zoo, with an average of about 23 square feet in which each man lives, sleeps, performs his bodily functions, and spends a great portion of each day. Beyond the deplorable lack of space, the cells are noisy, poorly lit, often in

608-410: The price of the land. The prison's 800 cells opened to receive prisoners on February 12, 1898, and that day admitted 1,403 prisoners, creating immediate overcrowding. To a greater or lesser extent, overcrowding persisted throughout the next century. The original Tennessee State Penitentiary on Church Street was demolished in 1898, and salvageable materials were used in the construction of outbuildings at

640-491: The prison walls using convict labor. In 1870 the state penitentiary reached a deal with the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company, establishing the first convict-leasing program in the country. This only added to growing frustrations among free laborers who staged a strike against the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company in 1871. Though the effort was ultimately defeated, it was the first of many revolts against

672-580: The prison's founding, it was the town of Auburn's largest structure. The prison was renamed the Auburn Correctional Facility in 1970. The prison is among the oldest functional prisons in the United States. In its early years, the prison charged a fee to tourists in order to raise funds for the prison. Eventually, to discourage most visitors, the fee was increased. In the 1840s, adult tourists paid twenty-five cents, whereas

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704-417: The prison's population.  —  Chief Judge Morton , Grubbs v. Bradley , 552 F. Supp. 1052, 1126 (M.D. Tenn. 1982) Several notable incidents have occurred at the second Tennessee State Penitentiary. On August 4, 1902, sixteen prisoners blew out the end of one wing of the prison and escaped; one of the inmates was shot and killed by guards. Two of those who escaped were never recaptured. Later,

736-734: The purely reformatory type prison instituted in Pennsylvania , the Philadelphia System introduced by the Quakers , the "Auburn system" modified the schedule of prayer, contemplation, and humane conditions with hard labor. Prisoners were compelled to work during the day, and the profit of their labor helped to support the prison. Prisoners were segregated by offense; additionally they were issued clothing that identified their crime. The traditional American prison uniform, consisting of horizontal black and white stripes, originated at

768-677: The site of several notable riots over the years, including November 1820 and a race-related riot in 1921. The most serious were two related incidents in the summer and winter of 1929. On July 28, 1929—only a week after a similar incident at Clinton Prison in Dannemora —inmates sprayed acid in an officer’s face and gained access to the prison's armory . Prison shops were set on fire, six buildings were destroyed, and four prisoners escaped. Two inmates were killed and one wounded, and five officers were injured. Later that year, on December 11, Warden Edgar Jennings and six guards were taken hostage by

800-509: Was adopted by other jurisdictions. This system was also called the "Congregate System." The Sing Sing Correctional Facility , also in New York, was built using this system under the supervision of the former warden of the Auburn prison, Elam Lynds . As of 2010, Auburn Correctional Facility is responsible for the manufacturing of New York State's license plates . Auburn has "a long history of controversy, scandal, and riot." It has been

832-494: Was attributed to increasing racial tensions and to prisoners' rights being violated. Copper John is a statue of an American Revolutionary War soldier that stands atop the Auburn Correctional Facility. It has entered the local lexicon as a reference to the prison and aspects of it, for example, getting sent to Auburn Prison is "going to work for Copper John." "John" was originally a wooden statue that

864-513: Was built on land that was once a Cayuga village. It is classified as a maximum security facility. In 1816, assemblyman John H. Beach lobbied New York State to make the town of Auburn the site for a new prison. Beach and his colleagues secured the contract for the town of Auburn, and sold a plot of land to the state of New York on the north bank of the Owasco Outlet for the prison to be built. Constructed in 1816 as Auburn Prison , it

896-504: Was built on the northwest corner of the grounds that housed the female inmates who worked on the farm as well. The new prison was built by Enoch Guy Elliott, who was married to Lady Ida Beasley Elliott , a missionary to Burma. Governor Peter Turney made Enoch Guy Elliott the chief warden of the old prison. Enoch used mostly prison labor to build the new prison. Construction costs for this second Tennessee State Penitentiary exceeded US$ 500,000 (US$ 12.3 million in 2007 dollars), not including

928-579: Was closed, the former prison was used as a filming location, but the interior was declared off-limits in 2011 due to asbestos. The building was severely damaged by an EF3 tornado in the tornado outbreak of March 2–3, 2020 . The following films include scenes that were filmed at the Tennessee State Prison: The old penitentiary also was mentioned in Church's "Lightning", released on his 2006 debut album Sinners Like Me . Church's song

960-452: Was erected atop the administration office of the prison in 1821. In 1848, the statue had weathered so much that it was taken down and a new statue was made out of copper by the prisoners in the prison foundry . In 2004, the New York state government became aware that the statue was fashioned to be "anatomically correct" and ordered the statue to be "incorrected". Some correctional officers made an impromptu protest by passing out T-shirts showing

992-606: Was expected to defray a portion of the cost of incarceration by performing physical labor. Inmates worked up to 16 hours a day for meager rations and unheated, unventilated sleeping quarters. The 1840s saw a rise in the use of prison labor, with inmates being employed in the construction of the state capitol building in Nashville. Prison labor was so lucrative that the state prison became a revenue-generating system that came in direct competition with free laborers. The State also contracted with private companies to operate factories inside

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1024-410: Was the second state prison in New York (after New York City's Newgate , 1797–1828), the site of the first execution by electric chair in 1890, and the namesake of the " Auburn system ," a correctional system in which prisoners were housed in solitary confinement in large rectangular buildings, and forced to participate in penal labor under silence that was enforced at all times. At the time of

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