TN.gov Newsroom

Only, TN - The Department of Correction Internal Affairs Division is investigating the homicide of an inmate at the Turney Center Industrial Prison in Hickman County.  Daniel Whalen, 32, was found stabbed to death outside a prison cell around 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

NASHVILLE - An inmate who escaped from the Charles B. Bass Correctional Complex in Nashville is back in TDOC custody.  Rodrickus Jefferson escaped from the facility sometime around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, February 17.  He was located approximately nine hours later inside the old Ford Glass Plant on Centennial Boulevard in West Nashville.

NASHVILLE - The death sentence of Steve Henley was executed by means of lethal injection on this date in accordance with the laws of the state of Tennessee.

The sentence was carried out at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in West Nashville.  Henley was pronounced dead by a physician at 1:33 a.m. CDT.

NASHVILLE - In accordance with state law, the Department of Correction is now accepting applications from recognized news organizations to serve as statutorily required witnesses for the scheduled execution of death row inmate Steve Henley.  The execution is currently scheduled for 1 a.m. CST on February 4, 2009.

WARTBURG - The Tennessee Department of Correction has launched the Correctional Treatment Academy at the Morgan County Correctional Complex.  The academy is a new 300-bed housing unit for offenders with a wide-range of needs including a history of behavioral and/or substance abuse issues.

NASHVILLE - Sociologist call them some of the most at-risk children in America today.  In Tennessee, there are thousands of children with incarcerated parents. 

"Perhaps the toughest part is the most basic, growing up without a parent or with either a mother or father or both locked away in a cell," said Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.  "The holidays present a particularly difficult time for these kids."

NASHVILLE - The effort to rehabilitate criminal offenders has just received a boost in Tennessee.  The Department of Correction has teamed with AmeriCorps Vista in the first of its kind program to help get much needed services to offenders upon their release from prison.

PIKEVILLE - The Tennessee Department of Correction will hold a public meeting to gain input from residents on the proposed expansion of the Southeastern Tennessee State Regional Correctional Facility in Pikeville, Tennessee.  Once completed, the facility will add more than 1,440 new beds and will be named the Bledsoe County Correctional Complex.

NASHVILLE — Tennessee First Lady Andrea Conte will address the National Association of Victim Services Professionals in Corrections on Friday, October 17, at the Holiday Inn Express Downtown. She will discuss the role that crime victims have in the corrections process and pre-release programs for incarcerated individuals to teach the impact that crime has on victims.

CHATTANOOGA - Internal Affairs agents with the Department of Correction have arrested a Chattanooga woman suspected of smuggling loaded guns into a Tennessee prison.  Tiara Monique Ward, 27, is charged with Introduction of Contraband into a Penal Facility.  She is being held at the Morgan County Jail.