state:
Tennessee
Local history:
Prison Profiteering in a Nuclear Shadow
Why do rural communities become prison towns?
Vanderbilt University
Exhibiting Partner to be Announced

States of Incarceration is now at the Levine Museum in Charlotte, NC

States of Incarceration is extended in NC! September 23, 2023 - January 31, 2023 at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, NC!

401 S Tryon St, Charlotte, NC 28202

go to www.museumofthenewsouth.org for more information.

Scroll or jump to next screen

Tennessee: Prison Profiteering in a Nuclear Shadow
Why do rural communities become prison towns?
Vanderbilt University

The Trousdale Turner Correctional Center is a private prison built in 2015 at the foot of a mothballed nuclear reactor in rural Tennessee. It is owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America, whose headquarters are in a wealthy Nashville suburb. The story of the prison begins in 1984, when the Tennessee Valley Authority canceled plans for the Hartsville Nuclear Complex due to public protest and economic miscalculation. The Four Lake Regional Industrial Development Authority created an industrial park called PowerCom on the former nuclear site, but many warehouses sat empty until 2008, when CCA bought part of PowerCom for a 2,552 bed prison. The recession delayed construction for six years, leaving Trousdale County’s economic future hanging in the balance. As the site now shifts from warehousing things to warehousing people, the question remains: What impact will the prison have on the people incarcerated there and on the local community?

Our Point of View

We are undergraduate students at different stages of our education—freshmen through seniors—and from different regions of the US—across the South, the Northeast, and the Midwest—as well as different nations of origin, including China and Switzerland. Together, we explored the layers of history in a prison construction site, as well as the connections between prison profiteering in rural Tennessee, in the city of Nashville where we live, and at our own university.

Scroll or jump to next screen

Tennessee: Prison Profiteering in a Nuclear Shadow    Vanderbilt University
Why do rural communities become prison towns?
Tennessee: Prison Profiteering in a Nuclear Shadow
Why do rural communities become prison towns?
  Vanderbilt University

National Exhibition Venue    To be announced

Public Dialogues and Events
| June 1 – June 15, 2021

See Full Exhibition & Events Schedule

Click on a state to learn more.
Click on a state to learn more.

Arizona

California

Connecticut

Florida

Georgia

Illinois

Indiana

Louisiana

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

New Jersey

New York

North Carolina

Ohio

Rhode Island

Tennessee

Texas

West Virginia

close open menus

National Issues

(select one)

or

Tags

(select one or multiple)