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Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is founded in Nashville, TN, by Thomas W. Beasley, Robert Crants and T. Don Hutto.
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Jeff Huffman becomes county executive for Tipton County, TN.
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Jimmy Naifeh, a resident of Tipton County and Tennessee Speaker of the House, teams up with Lt. Gov. John Wilder to lobby for a CCA prison in Mason. Jimmy Naifeh's cousin is Finde Naifeh, the mayor of Mason.
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The first mention of the CCA prison appears in the May 1, 1989, minutes of the Town of Mason.
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Mason's mayor Finde Naifeh dies unexpectedly of a heart attack before being able to complete planning with CCA for the new prison. He has been mayor since 1977. The mayor's widow goes on to work at WTDF as an administrative assistant.
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In June Joe D. Ward is selected by the town board to succeed Finde Naifeh as mayor of the Town of Mason, based in part on his response to the question whether he would support Mason's bid for the new prison.
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Mason annexes land south of town near U.S. 70 and begins to rezone it and extend water and sewage lines to it.
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CCA buys 67 acres for $140,000.
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In July the Town of Mason agrees to process governmental contracts to be managed by CCA. The town's understanding is that it will be "a detention center to house drunken drivers and inmates awaiting trial."
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Between 10 to 15 people held by the US Marshals are booked at WTDF. The $7 million facility is medium-security.
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For nine months WTDF houses 38 District of Columbia inmates transferred from a CCA prison in Youngstown, OH, because they are too "hard-core" to remain at that facility, according to a CCA source.
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Newcomers from the District of Columbia and Texas riot at news there will be no family contact for Christmas. Officers tear-gas the rioters.
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The man's accused killer is the only DC prisoner retained at the facility when the group is moved elsewhere.
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Two men escape the facility by overpowering a guard, taking his keys and climbing a fence. They are apprehended within hours in a nearby woods.
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In spring elections, Joe D. Ward ekes out a one-vote victory, 77-76, over Syble Stegall, to retain his mayoral post. The town's divided feelings about the prison are a topic in the elections.
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The union loses a representation bid at WTDF.
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Victor Mora, a safecracker, escapes over WTDF's fence. For a period of time, CCA and WTDF are unsure whether he has escaped: "he isn't showing up for meals."
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Alvin Michael Perry, being held at WTDF for the NC Department of Corrections, commits suicide a few days after requesting solitary confinement because he feared violence by others.
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Jimmy Faifeh weds Betty Anderson, a CCA lobbyist.
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Two men escape by cutting through metal straps that hold two fences in place. A blue van outside the fence waits for them and helps them escape.
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A SWAT team is called in to subdue 111 NC inmates during a two-hour riot at WTDF. Shelby County houses and feeds 99 inmates for several days following the incident while CCA restores two dormitories that are damaged.
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A $2.5 million improvement adds maximum-security grade cells - an addition approved by Mason and developed simply by obtaining a $707 building permit from Mason officials. There is no public hearing.
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WTDF is one of nine properties that CCA sells to CCA Prison Realty Trust and then leases back under long-term agreements. This is seen by CCA as freeing up cash to pay down debt and expand.
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/media/publications/cca%20mason%20detention%20facility%20lease%20agreement%201997.pdf -
Mason Mayor Joe D. Ward acquires 5,000 shares of CCA stock, worth approximately $90,000 at the time.
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Betty Anderson, the wife of Tennessee House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, leaves her role as lobbyist for CCA.
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CCA Prison Realty Trust and CCA announce a plan under which the Prison Realty Trust will acquire the management company (CCA). Operating as a subsidiary, CCA will be controlled by insiders and freed from the direct pressure of showing quarterly earnings growth, while CCA Prison Realty Trust will enjoy REIT tax benefits as the owner of the entire CCA portfolio of prisons.
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Corey Smith is escorted to make a phone call but is not searched. Another inmate armed with a shank slips past officers and attacks him. In the fight Corey Smith dies. In an After Action Report, the US Department of Justice identifies 9 findings, including CCA's failure to follow handcuffing or interviewing policies.
https://www.justice.gov/archives/ag/appendix-9-documents-response-august-271998-homicide-ccas-western-tennessee-detention-facility -
State Senator Pete Springer (D-Centerville) asks Attorney General Janet Reno to broaden her investigation of a privately managed prison in Youngstown, OH, to include practices at WTDF.
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Charles Roy Degan's jaw remains wired shut, following an injury received from another inmate, from mid-October 1998 until Christmas, despite medical instructions that it should be wired shut for only 5 to 6 weeks. Degan spends several excruciating days pulling out the wires himself with nail clippers.
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In June, a journalist uncovers Mayor Joe D. Ward's CCA investment. The mayor confirms he now holds 4,300 shares in Prison Realty Trust, CCA's parent company.
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Lee C. Clark Jr. is elected mayor for the Town of Mason.
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The seven-day interagency search for the two escapees, one convicted of murder and the other convicted of armed robbery, costs between $67,000 to $72,000. The two men are apprehended on a Shelby County golf course.
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/media/publications/private_corrections_industry_news_bulletin_2.6.pdf -
The Memphis Commercial Appeal describes MT detainees: "Among 177 Montana inmates jailed at the Mason Correctional Facility in nearby Tipton County, for example, 52 were convicted of homicide offenses, eight others are kidnappers, four were sentenced for arson and 16 have previous escapes on their records."
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Corrections Corporation of America agrees to pay $60,000 to the state to cover the cost of apprehending two Montana inmates.
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The Institute for Southern Studies in Durham, NC, releases a case study on WTDF that focuses on how the private prison's cost-cutting approach has led to chronic understaffing, high employee turnover rates and dangerous conditions for workers and inmates. The case study also describes how locals were misled about the security level of the prison and its size. The case study is covered by USA Today.
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A federal jury awards Charles Roy Degan $200,000 in punitive damages and $35,000 in compensatory damages against CCA. In their letter, the jury writes, "...the medical needs of those you serve is a right not to be forgotten, omitted, lost, delayed or otherwise denied. This is a basic human right, as important as providing nourishment or shelter to those who are entrusted to your care."
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2001/jul/15/235000-awarded-to-cca-prisoner-in-medical-suit/ -
Marvin Borjas Diaz-Perez, 22, who suffers from severe emphysema, dies after becoming catatonic. An anonymous tipster alerts the Memphis Commercial Appeal, "alleging a number of improprieties regarding the inmate's treatment by CCA." The Honduran government requests an investigation.
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2002/jan/15/news-in-brief/ -
WTDF lays off 90 employees when it moves 350 Wisconsin inmates to another CCA Tennessee facility.
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On July 21 Henry Briggs sees an off-site orthopedic specialist who prescribes surgery for a fractured ankle. The surgery is approved the following day. However, Henry Briggs does not have surgery until August 4.
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Former Memphis Police Department officer Arthur Sease IV, detained at WTDF on 50 indictments for shaking down drug dealers, writes a letter complaining that CCA has him in administrative segregation but not protective custody and he is fearful for his life. He describes one morning when two fights broke out and "an inmate was stabbed when all the cell doors in the segregation unit were opened at once."
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Anthony Kelly is one of the people who has lost his life at WTDF. Names are not known of all those who have lost their life there.
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The annual review reveals that the prison has a capacity of 600 (520 men and 80 women) and an average daily population of 81.32 ICE detainees (65.72 men and 15.6 women). The "basic rate per man day" is $76.83 and the estimate is 29,693 man days per year. So CoreCivic is bringing in about $2.28M per year for housing ICE detainees at WTDF. https://www.ice.gov/doclib/foia/dfra-ice-dro/ccamasonmasontn01101207.pdf
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The annual Quality Assurance Review finds WTDF deficient.
https://www.governmentattic.org/docs/DOJOfcFedDetentionTrusteeQARepts_2005-2007.pdf -
Lee C. Clark Jr. resigns as mayor of the Town of Mason.
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Upon the resignation of Lee C. Clark Jr., David Smith is appointed interim mayor of Mason.
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CCA employee Keith H. Huggins transfers to WTDF after being charged with assault at the Palace nightclub in Jackson where he works as a bouncer on his off-hours. One person suffers a broken jaw and other serious injuries. Huggins enters a “best interest” plea in April 2008 to misdemeanor assault and is placed on probation, during which time he remains employed at WTDF.
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2008/jun/15/cca-attempts-cover-up-of-assault-by-warden-at-tennessee-prison/ -
Alan Young is one of the people who has lost his life at WTDF. Names are not known of all those who have lost their life there.
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Brian Rooney and Christopher Williams are among 16 VT inmates who arrive via bus at WTDF. Both are convicted of crimes not appropriate for a medium-security facility.
https://www.rutlandherald.com/news/vermont-killers-moved-to-tennessee-prison/article_0bf49e16-4176-5d8c-a150-9009c9fe2c3b.html -
The U.S. Marshal contract is renewable through February 4, 2030. ICE is able to hold detainees at WTDF under an interdepartmental rider.
https://www.usmarshals.gov/foia/IGAs_Cap_Agreements/tennessee/w_tn_det_fac.pdf -
Officers use chemical spray to control 35 VT detainees, who are then put on lockdown. A VT investigator reports her office "gets complaints about the lack of education, work or recreation programs and concerns about racial tensions between inmates at the Tennessee prison."
https://www.benningtonbanner.com/local-news/35-vermont-inmates-riot-in-tennessee-prison/article_e5acb9f7-bdde-5854-8939-2b984e78158e.html -
There are calls for the resignation of Mayor David Smith.
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CCA's argument is that reimbursement from governmental agencies is rent collection.
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In January Mason Mayor David Smith calls residents idiots and storms out of a meeting as he makes a promise to resign. He is angered by questions regarding his wife's work for the town. He resigns in February.
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Vice-Mayor Gwendolyn Kilpatrick becomes mayor of the Town of Mason. She is the town's first African-American female mayor.
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Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) changes its name to CoreCivic.
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Comunidades Unidas en Una Voz (CUUV), in collaboration with other local groups, holds a protest outside WTDF to denounce the abusive and inhumane immigration detention system.
https://www.actionnews5.com/story/36002812/protesters-gather-outside-mason-detention-facility-to-oppose-ice-arrests/ -
Long-time alderman Emmet Gooden becomes mayor of the Town of Mason. He is the town's first African-American male mayor.
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CoreCivic's 2019 PREA Report shows one substantiated case of "INMATE/DETAINEE ON INMATE/DETAINEE-SEXUAL HARASSMENT."
https://www.corecivic.com/hubfs/_files/PREA/2019-PREA%20AnnualReport.pdf -
Ramon Montoya, who later loses two of his toes, is told by WTDF doctors that he must walk and his wheelchair is removed. Ramon Montoya alleges this is contrary to advice he received from the Memphis doctor he saw on January 4.
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A Honduran woman with a high risk pregnancy, Carmen Puerto Diaz, is arrested outside USCIS offices following her green card appointment with her husband. In ICE holding and at WTDF, she is not given hypertension medication in her purse. She is given only occasional blood pressure checks. She does not have access to her medication until she is transferred to La Salle in Louisiana.
https://www.hoppocklawfirm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-Jan-EOIR-Morning-Briefing.pdf -
CoreCivic's 2020 PREA Report identifies one substantiated case of "EMPLOYEE ON INMATE/DETAINEE-SEXUAL ABUSE."
https://www.corecivic.com/hubfs/_files/PREA/2020-PREA%20AnnualReport-FINAL1.pdf -
For the period of January-December 2019, the ICE facility report notes 13 "Sexual abuse allegations- staff/contractor/volunteer on detainee," 3 natural deaths, and 1 suicide. These occurred in the "non-ICE population."
https://www.ice.gov/doclib/facilityInspections/westernTennDetFac_SIS_01-16-2020.pdf -
The U.S. Marshals Service confirms there are 28 inmates or employees at WTDF who have tested positive for COVID. The county executive tells a reporter he has not been able to get clear information from the US Marshals or CoreCivic.
https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/local/tipton-county-sees-spike-coronavirus-cases-after-prison-outbreak-health-department-says/TM7G4YESGJHLBB5LCOJBPJCCKQ/ -
Memphis Noticias interviews a Memphis woman whose brother is sick in WTDF, where he is being held for ICE and has not yet been tested for COVID. He believes he and about 100 other people at the facility were infected by a cook there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOvPUEES7ek -
In her list of questions for US Marshals, Rep. Karen Bass notes: "One detainee went so far as to describe the spread of COVID-19 inside the West Tennessee Detention Facility, a USMS contract jail owned and operated by CoreCivic, as a situation in which he and his fellow detainees were 'left for dead.'"
https://bass.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-bass-chairman-nadler-call-us-marshals-service-provide-answers -
The Covington Leader reports there are no active COVID cases at WTDF. More than 325 cases have been reported among detainees or employees over the previous months.
https://covingtonleader.com/news/june-10-the-prison-outbreaks-over-average-cases-per-day-are-up-and-there-will-soon-be-visitation-at-nursing-homes/ -
Pepper spray is used to disrupt "an incident involving a group of detainees that had become disruptive and confrontational. This group created safety hazards by attempting to barricade doors and refusing to comply with verbal directives provided by staff."
https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/local/spokesperson-confirms-disturbance-west-tennessee-detention-facility/TLPDPVCZ2ZD2VDYPKJX5CDTQV4/ -
WTDF is listed in a congressional report as among the "numerous ICE facilities" that do not consistently provide vaccinations for the flu or pneumonia.
https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/2020-09-24.%20Staff%20Report%20on%20ICE%20Contractors.pdf -
Marquelle P. Curne is charged with possession of schedule III with intent, possession of schedule I with intent and bringing contraband into a penal facility.
https://covingtonleader.com/news/courts/two-west-tennessee-detention-facility-employees-were-indicted-for-trying-to-smuggle-contraband-into-the-prison/ -
Alice Jeanetta Neloms is charged with possession of a schedule III drug with intent to delivery and bringing contraband into the prison.
https://covingtonleader.com/news/courts/two-west-tennessee-detention-facility-employees-were-indicted-for-trying-to-smuggle-contraband-into-the-prison/ -
CoreCivic changes its corporate structure from a real estate investment trust (REIT) back to a C corporation. Executives say the change will give them much more financial flexibility.
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In late August, ICE makes a pre-occupancy inspection visit to WTDF, often a precursor to a contract.
https://twitter.com/setareh_june/status/1458840460131291138 -
Tipton County executive Jeff Huffman is given permission by the county commission to enter into contracts on behalf of the county with CoreCivic and ICE.
https://cms4files1.revize.com/tiptontn/document_center/Meetings/CC/2021-09-Commission_minutes.pdf -
CoreCivic's contract with the Marshals expires and the federal detainee populations are transferred to alternative locations, including approximately 200 to Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi.
https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2021/11/09/corecivic-inc-cxw-q3-2021-earnings-call-transcript/ -
Damon Hininger reveals: "We did have very productive conversations with a couple of different government partners... we've had interest from ICE... Our understanding is that they're trying to get some clarity... not only what their potential needs are going to be based on the... budget, but also,.. Title 42 and some of the other kind of policy things that they put in place.."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4486086-corecivic-inc-cxw-ceo-damon-hininger-on-q4-2021-results-earnings-call-transcript -
The Covington Leader reveals that Jeff Huffman has pitched an idea to CoreCivic to convert WTDF into an RV park for construction workers involved with the Ford Blue Oval project in Haywood County: "It would be perfect... Maybe use the cafeteria... The sewer and utilities are already there." https://covingtonleader.com/news/is-the-prison-in-mason-closed-for-good/
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Filings reveal on 12/31/21 WTDF had a net book value of $20.6M and CoreCivic had "a certain staffing level at the facility in order to quickly respond should the Company enter into a new contract with a government agency in the near-term." In 2020, the USMS contract generated $18.4M (net operating loss $1.4M). In first 9 months of 2021, the contract generated $14.7M (net operating income $0.4M).
https://www.streetinsider.com/SEC+Filings/Form+10-K+CoreCivic%2C+Inc.+For%3A+Dec+31/19646711.html -
Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Jason Mumpower's letters to residents of Mason begin to arrive: "In my opinion it's time for Mason to relinquish its charter."
https://covingtonleader.com/news/will-mason-give-up-its-charter-the-comptroller-mailed-letters-to-encourage-them-to-do-it/ -
After a City of Mason alderman vote to retain their charter, the Comptroller announces he will take over Mason finances.
https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/03/15/comptroller-takes-financial-control-of-majority-black-town-of-mason-ahead-of-ford-investment-in-west-tennessee/ -
Ford Motor's spokesperson states, "As we ramp up construction of Blue Oval City this year and move toward production in 2025, Ford is absolutely committed to being a good neighbor and providing inclusive and equitable opportunities for West Tennesseans, including the residents of Mason." Mason officials state they have not been directly contacted.
https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/03/18/ford-motor-expresses-concern-about-mason/ -
The Tennessee Lookout reports the Comptroller is prepared to scale back financial oversight after a meeting with Mason officials.
https://covingtonleader.com/news/mason-officials-comptrollers-team-have-positive-meeting-about-financial-plan/ -
On April 5, Mason files a lawsuit against Comptroller Mumpower.
https://www.scribd.com/document/567847159/Mason-Lawsuit -
Chancellor Anne Martin, who presides over the hearing, asked the assistant attorney general — if the prison closure was a relevant factor in creating the financial takeover plan for Mason — why wasn’t the $5.6 billion investment by the Ford Motor Company in a soon-to-be-built Blue Oval City campus also taken into account as a “positive factor.”
https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/04/06/tennessee-comptroller-lays-out-case-in-court-for-mason-takeover/ -
The Comptroller office states that it moved to take over Mason finances when the prison closed.
https://covingtonleader.com/news/heres-why-masons-request-for-injunction-against-the-comptroller-was-denied/
