Tennessee Prisons Pledge To Report More ‘Assaults’ In Bid To Improve Safety

The Department of Correction is changing its definition of assault within the state’s prison system.

The proposal is one response Correction Commissioner Derrick Schofield is laying out to counter claims his agency has been whitewashing violent incidents.  It would bring the prison system’s definition of assault more closely in line with the legal meaning in the outside world.

That should result in a rise in the reported number of violent incidents, says Schofield.

“We wanted to make sure we added the clarity, took out the subjectivity, and so we will see a tick up. But there still will be an ability to count whether there was an assault with injury, minor injury, so we still have that, just like we’ve counted in the past,” he says. “That doesn’t go away.”

Schofield also says the system will split up the West Tennessee State Penitentiary, where there have been repeated reports of violence.

One part of the West Tennessee prison will be turned into a unit for women. Schofield says the space is needed to accommodate the growing number of female offenders.

He assures lawmakers they’ll be kept safe and separate from the men.