This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 63.215.27.133 (talk) at 22:21, 4 February 2007 (wrote "Refered" and spelled it correctly and changed commandeered to demanded). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 22:21, 4 February 2007 by 63.215.27.133 (talk) (wrote "Refered" and spelled it correctly and changed commandeered to demanded)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)63.215.27.133 22:21, 4 February 2007 (UTC)Tennessee State Prison is a prison that has been closed since 1989. The Green Mile, The Last Castle, and Pillar's "Bring Me Down" video were filmed there. Most recently VH1's Celebrity Paranormal Project filmed there for the third episode of the series called The Warden.
History
The proposed prison design called for the construction of a fortress-like structure patterned after the penitentiary at Auburn, New York, made famous for the lockstep, striped prisoner uniforms, nighttime solitary confinement, and daytime congregate work under strictly enforced silence. The new Tennessee prison contained 800 small cells, each designed to house a single inmate. In addition, an administration building and other smaller buildings for offices, warehouses, and factories were built within the twenty-foot (6.15m)high, three-foot (1 m) thick 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.
Construction costs for this second Tennessee State Penitentiary exceeded US$500,000, not including 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 later that year, and salvageable materials were used in the construction of outbuildings at the new facility, creating a physical link from 1830 to the present.
Every convict was expected to defray a portion of the cost of incarceration by performing physical labor. Within two years, inmates worked up to sixteen hours per day for meager rations and unheated, unventilated sleeping quarters. The State also contracted with private companies to operate factories inside the prison walls using convict labor.
The Tennessee State Penitentiary had its share of problems. In 1902, seventeen prisoners blew out the end of one wing of the prison, killing one inmate and allowing the escape of two others who were never recaptured. Later, a group of inmates seized control of the segregated white wing and held it for eighteen hours before surrendering. In 1907 several convicts demanded 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 a new penitentiary, the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution at Nashville. The old Tennessee State Penitentiary closed in June 1992. As part of the settlement in a class action suit, Grubbs v. Bradley (1983), the Federal Court issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the Tennessee Department of Correction from ever again housing inmates at the Tennessee State Prison.
Trivia
The inmates of this facility referred to it as "The Walls".
The Electric Chair Was Refered To As "Ol Sparky"
James Earl Ray, Spent Some Time In The Tennessee State Prison
External links
 | This article has not been added to any content categories. Please help out by adding categories to it so that it can be listed with similar articles. |