TDOC HISTORICAL TIMELINE 1700s Legislature employs three directors to create and coordinate a convict leasing 1796 Tennessee admitted to the Union system 1799 Act passes providing the death penalty for 1870 Convict leasing system begins leasing horse stealing inmates to the Tennessee Coal, Iron & 1800s Railroad Company; first work release program in the country 1813 First act passes to raise money to build a central prison; no public support; concept 1871 Governor John Calvin Brown fails Office of Superintendent of Prisons 1819 Governor Joseph McMinn recommends created that the state fund construction of a 1873 Act passes for a new penitentiary for central prison; again no public support; farming and mining at Brushy Mountain concept fails 1877 Governor James Davis Porter 1829 Governor William Hall Act passes ruling prison labor will not Governor William Carroll compete with free-world industry Act passes to provide for building a public 1883 Governor William Brimage Bate jail and penitentiary house, state-funded Act passes prohibiting over 550 men in A five person Board of Inspectors one prison (including the Governor and Secretary of State as ex officio members) is created All prisoners now given physical examinations upon entry into the system 1831 Tennessee State Penitentiary (TSP) as provided by Legislative Act located just south of 7th Avenue and Broadway in Nashville, became 1885 Act passes to allow convicts good time in operational for both men and women; 65 diminution of their sentences inmates employed by public works 1890s Separate wing is built at TSP for female 1850s Inmates employed to build State Capitol inmates; prior to this, male and female offenders were housed in the same unit 1850 Governor Isham G. Harris 1891 Governor James Pierce Buchanan TSP moves to Church Street Insurrection by miners protesting the use Governor given power of executive of free inmate labor in mines; free-world clemency miners place inmate miners on train out of 1863 Union Army takes over TSP to use as a town causing the creation of the State military prison; all state prisoners were Militia moved to Brushy Mountain 1893 Convict leasing system is abolished 1865 Governor William Gannaway Brownlow 1895 Brushy Mountain Prison is built in Petros 2 1898 TSP moves to new location in Cockrill 1913 Act passes authorizing a parole system Bend; not over 20% of the total cost of the and indeterminate sentencing for adult new prison was spent for materials offenders; act also changes death penalty purchased outside the State of from hanging to electrocution Tennessee 1915 Governor Thomas Clarke Rye The cost to house an inmate for one year was approximately $117.48 (.32/day) State Reformatory for Girls is founded in Tullahoma by the Tennessee Federation 1899 Governor Benton McMillan of Women’s Clubs Legislature approves resolution Legislature creates State Board of temporarily housing federal inmates from Controls to manage penal, reformatory, Tennessee and surrounding states to and charitable institutions generate income 1916 First man electrocuted in Tennessee 1900s 1918 Tennessee Reformatory for Negro Boys is 1900 New building for female inmates is founded in Pikeville opened within the walls of TSP State Reformatory for Girls receives its 1902 Board of Prison Commissioners created first girls by Legislature The cost to house an inmate for one year 1904 Suspension-by-thumbs abolished was approximately $230.57 (.63/day) legislatively as a means of punishment for inmates 1919 Governor Albert Houston Roberts 1905 Governor John Isaacs Cox The State Board of Control is replaced by a Board for the Administration of State Behavior grading system initiated at Institutions composed of the Governor, Brushy Mountain state treasurer, and general manager of state organizations 1907 Governor Malcolm Rice Patterson 1921 Governor Alfred Alexander Taylor Act passes to create a juvenile facility for boys State Vocation School for Colored Girls is founded in Nashville 1908 One 10 year old and one 11 year old boy are committed to state prison; each to 1923 Governor Austin Peay serve 2-3 years for larceny and other related offenses Commissioner Lewis S. Pope 1911 Tennessee Reformatory for Boys in Administrative Reorganization Act passes Jordonia opens, under Governor Ben placing the administration of penal, Hooper, receiving 11-23 year old males reformatory, and charitable institutions for both determinate and indeterminate under the newly created Department of sentences Institutions Board of three prison commissioners TSP contracts with State for inmates to established by Governor Ben Hooper make license plates 3 1902—Main Prison in Nashville 1897—State Prison Farm 4 1927 Governor Henry H. Horton profit; Tennessee enacts legislation in accordance Commissioner Richard Lyle 1938 Fort Pillow State Penal farm is founded 1928 Shelby County Penal Farm is founded as as a medium security farming facility in a minimum security facility Lauderdale County, West Tennessee, to 1929 Act creates the Advisory Board of separate first-time offenders from the Pardons rest of the prison population 1930 New building for adult female offenders is 1939 Governor Prentice Cooper built, physically separate from TSP, but Commissioner Andrew T. Taylor still on its grounds and administratively dependent Habitual Criminal Act passes 1931 Advisory Board of Pardons creates a World War II - Private industry used system for parole eligibility prison labor 1933 Governor Harry Hill McAllister The Department of Institutions and Public Welfare is divided into two Commissioner Edwin W. Cocke, M.D. departments: Department of Institutions Legislature creates an Industrial Division and Department of Public Welfare of the Department of Institutions 1941 Commissioner W. O. Baird, MD 1933 New Brushy Mountain Prison is being 1945 Governor Jim Nance McCord built in Petros Commissioner W. O. Baird, MD 1936 Commissioner Barton Brown 1951 Boys’ Reformatories became State 1937 Governor Gordon Browning Training and Agriculture Schools Commissioner George Cate, Sr. 1953 Governor Frank Goad Clement The Administrative Reorganization Act is Commissioner Keith Hampton amended, creating the Department of Institutions and Public Welfare, including Responsibility for mental health facilities Confederate Soldier’s Home, School for is transferred from the Department of the Blind, School for the Deaf, Tennessee Institutions to form the Department of Industrial School at TSP, the Blind Mental Health Commission, Clover Bottom Developmental Center, three regional 1955 Classification System created at TSP psychiatric hospitals, and the Gailor The name of the Department of Center Institutions is changed to the Act creates Board of Pardons and Department of Correction (DOC) Paroles; appointments made by the State Training Schools for boys are Governor and the Board is chaired by renamed State Vocation Training Commissioner of DIPW Schools for White Boys (Jordonia) and U.S. Supreme Court rules no sale of Colored Boys (Pikeville) prison-made products to other states for 1956 Corporal punishment for juveniles is 5 1922—Brushy Mountain coal Mine 1922—Tennessee State Pententiary 6 abolished (reinstated 1957) institutions 1957 Act establishes the Division of Juvenile Corporal punishment abolished for adult Probation offenders 1958 Statewide Juvenile Probation system New Tennessee Prison for Women, becomes operational Stewarts Lane, becomes operational. Former facility converted to Maximum security building, including Rehabilitation Center for males (day electric chair, is built at TSP program operated by Department of 1959 Governor Buford Ellington Education, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation) Commissioner Keith Hampton 1967 Governor Buford Ellington 1960 William Tines is the last person executed in the State of Tennessee Commissioner Harry S. Avery prior to the Furman Decision DOC Central Office moved to Doctor’s 1961 Division of Adult Probation and Parole Building are established legislatively Work Release is established at Shelby Tennessee Youth Center in Joelton County Penal Farm founded as a forestry camp for boys Division of Religious Services is created 1963 Governor Frank G. Clement Correctional Rehabilitation Center Commissioner Harry S. Avery (CRC) in Nashville opens Act establishes Division of Youth 1968 Treatment services initiated at TSP Services; provides for an Assistant Vocational Rehabilitation Unit opened Commissioner 1969 Commissioner Lake F. Russell Major changes in Parole Board: 5- member, part-time board; first black Opportunity House, Inc., becomes member is appointed operational; a half-way house for men in Nashville 1965 Juvenile institutions are desegregated and classified by age 3 adult institutions are reclassified: Brushy to maximum security; TSP to Intensive Treatment Rehabilitation medium, and Fort Pillow (now named Center for juveniles opens in Nashville Cold Creek Correctional Facility) to near Jordonia; operated by the minimum Department of Education, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. 1970 Division of Rehabilitative Services is created legislatively State prison school is established and accredited Prisoner Rehabilitation Act of 1970 provides for adult work release Mining operations at Brushy Mountain abandoned due to safety problems Act passes for relieving Commissioner of DOC as chair for Board of Pardons 1966 Cell blocks integrated at all adult 7 1966—Brushy Mountain Correctional Complex 1966—Tennessee State Pententiary—Women’s Unit 8 and Paroles; Chairman elected by Labor problems