Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, last named Brushy Mountain Correctional Complex, (or, unofficially, Brushy) was a maximum-security prison in the community of Petros in Morgan County, Tennessee, operated by the Tennessee Department of Correction. It was established in 1896 and operated until 2009. Beginning in 2018, the site opened for tours and events, such as concerts. The grounds of the prison are included in part of the Barkley Marathons.
Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary opened in 1896 in the aftermath of the Coal Creek War, an 1891 lockout of coal miners that took place in Coal Creek and Briceville, Tennessee, after miners protested the use of unpaid convict leasing in the mines. This labor conflict resulted in a bill passed by the Tennessee state legislature to abolish the convict labor system. In response the state constructed the Brushy Mountain Mine and Prison. [1] [2] The mountainous, secure site was located with the help of consulting geologists, and Brushy Mountain convicts built a railroad spur, worked the coal mines on site, operated coke ovens, or farmed. At the end of all the state's convict lease arrangements on January 1, 1896, some 210 of those prisoners became the first inmates of Brushy Mountain. [3]
The original prison was a wooden structure also built by prisoner labor. It was replaced in the 1920s with a castle-like building constructed from stone mined by prisoners from a quarry on the property. [1] [4] The prison is nearly encircled by rugged wooded terrain in a remote section of the Cumberland Plateau, adjacent to Frozen Head State Park and Natural Area. Escape attempts were infrequent and almost always unsuccessful. Perhaps the best-known escape attempt occurred on June 10, 1977, when James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., escaped with six other inmates by climbing over a fence. Ray was captured less than 58 hours later in rugged mountain terrain 81⁄2 miles from the prison. [5]
The prison was closed in 1972 after a strike by prison guards protesting unsafe working conditions. It reopened in 1976. [1] [2] Brushy Mountain was the only unionized prison in the state. The union worked closely with state legislators to improve the working conditions for correctional staff across the state. Under Governor Lamar Alexander attempts were made to squeeze the union out of existence, but his efforts were fruitless. Additional attempts over the years were attempted but they proved fruitless also. Many efforts to close the prison were attempted long before the 2009 closure. In 1998 Brushy Mountain Prison was administratively joined with Morgan County Correctional Complex. With the joining of the two institutions, both prisons became unionized.
In the 1980s Brushy Mountain ended its long-standing function as a maximum security prison and assumed a mission as a classification facility. [1] In its final operations, it had a capacity of 584 and was used as the state's reception/classification and diagnostic center for East Tennessee. It housed all custody levels of inmates, although it retained a maximum security designation because of the 96-bed maximum security annex contained within the prison walls, which was used to house the state's most troublesome inmates. The last warden was Jim Worthington. [6] [7] The prison closed on June 11, 2009. [8] Its functions were transferred to the Morgan County Correctional Complex. [1]
In 2018, Brushy Mountain was re-opened to the public for tours, private events, car shows, and concerts. Brushy also houses a distillery that produces moonshine, vodka, whiskey, and liqueurs. [9] In addition, Brushy features the Warden's Table Restaurant, which serves Southern and American staples such as barbecue and cheeseburgers in a cafeteria-like format. [10]
In addition to James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., notable inmates included Byron Looper, who was convicted in 2000 for the murder of State Senator Tommy Burks and began serving his life sentence at Brushy Mountain.[ citation needed ] George Hyatte, one of the perpetrators of the 2005 Kingston courthouse shooting, was imprisoned at Brushy Mountain at the time of that incident. [7] [11]
In the novel The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter is offered a transfer to Brushy Mountain in exchange for providing information about Buffalo Bill, a serial killer. [12]
Folsom California State Prison is a California State Prison in Folsom, California, U.S., approximately 20 miles (32 km) northeast of the state capital of Sacramento. It is one of 34 adult institutions operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Minnesota Correctional Facility – Oak Park Heights (MCF-OPH) is Minnesota's only Level Five maximum security prison. The facility is located near the cities of Bayport and Stillwater. The facility is designed and employed with trained security officers to handle not only Minnesota's high-risk inmates but other states' as well. They also have the largest contract to house federal inmates with serious, violent histories. The prison has never had an escape, and only one homicide.
Peter Turney was an American politician, soldier, and jurist, who served as the 26th governor of Tennessee from 1893 to 1897. He was also a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1870 to 1893, and served as the court's Chief Justice from 1886 to 1893. During the Civil War, Turney was colonel of the First Tennessee Regiment, one of the first Tennessee units to join the Confederate Army.
The Federal Correctional Institution, Leavenworth is a medium-security federal prison for male inmates in northeast Kansas. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. It also includes a satellite federal prison camp (FPC) for minimum-security male offenders.
A super-maximum security (supermax) or administrative maximum (ADX) prison is a "control-unit" prison, or a unit within prisons, which represents the most secure level of custody in the prison systems of certain countries.
The Iowa State Penitentiary (ISP) is an Iowa Department of Corrections maximum security prison for men located in the Lee County, Iowa, community of Fort Madison. This facility should not be confused with the Historical Iowa State Penitentiary, which was shut down in 2015 after being open for 175 years. The HISP itself was a 550-person maximum security unit. Also on the complex was a John Bennett Correctional Center - a 169-person medium security unit. The HISP included two minimum-security farms with about 170 people who were located within a few miles of the main complex. The complex also had a ten-person multiple care unit, and a 120-bed special-needs unit for prisoners with mental illness or other diseases that require special medical care. In total, there were about 950 inmates and 510 staff members.
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Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP), also known as Oregon State Prison, is a maximum security prison in the northwest United States in Salem, Oregon. Originally opened in Portland 173 years ago in 1851, it relocated to Salem fifteen years later. The 2,242-capacity prison is the oldest in the state; the all-male facility is operated by the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC). OSP contains an intensive management wing, which is being transformed into a psychiatric facility for mentally ill prisoners throughout Oregon.
The Penitentiary of New Mexico (PNM) is a men's maximum-security prison located in unincorporated Santa Fe County, 15 miles (24 km) south of central Santa Fe, on New Mexico State Road 14. It is operated by the New Mexico Corrections Department.
Tennessee State Prison is a former correctional facility located six miles west of downtown Nashville, Tennessee on Cockrill Bend. It opened in 1898 and has been closed since 1992 because of overcrowding concerns. The facility was severely damaged by an EF3 tornado in the tornado outbreak of March 2–3, 2020.
The Oklahoma State Penitentiary, nicknamed "Big Mac", is a prison of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections located in McAlester, Oklahoma, on 1,556 acres (6.30 km2). Opened in 1908 with 50 inmates in makeshift facilities, today the prison holds more than 750 male offenders, the vast majority of which are maximum-security inmates. They also hold many death row prisoners.
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