The issues involving lack of safety, transparency and poor financial practices call into question the competence of the leadership at the Tennessee Department of Correction.
However, in response to scrutiny, TDOC Commissioner Derrick Schofield has shown defiance in the face of questions from lawmakers and the media.
“You assume that we just have to change something. In a review we’ll look and say, ‘Is there a need to change?’ ” Schofield told reporters after a state legislative hearing Wednesday
He also said: “The transparency comes when we are doing what needs to be done. What you have to understand is that just because we don’t publish a document, there are reasons.”
This defiance persists even as guards have been assaulted and some of those attacks have been classified as less severe than they actually are.
Even as prisons are near capacity and multiple incidents of violent fights and breakouts have been reported in just the past few months.
Even as information about TDOC processes and responses to audits are not being made public, as they should be.
Even as a mystery still surrounds the case of inmate Elbert Thornton, whose 2013 death TDOC declared natural even though the initial medical examiner’s report declared his death “suspicious, unusual or unnatural.”
Even as TDOC operated its prison food program without a contract.
Schofield temporizes in lieu of taking decisive action even in the face of recommendations from a 2012 audit and a recent audit by the American Correctional Association.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers have demonstrably lost patience with the state prison system in their hearings. Earlier this month (continue reading at Tennessean)