Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary
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Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary now renamed Brushy Mountain Correctional Complex (also called Brushy) was a large maximum-security prison near the town of Petros in Morgan County, Tennessee, operated by the Tennessee Department of Correction. It was established in 1896 and operated until 2009.
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[edit] History
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 labor in the mines. This labor conflict was eventually resolved in favor of the coal miners with a bill passing the Tennessee state legislature to abolish the convict labor system, to be replaced by a modern penitentiary system of which Brushy Mountain was the first to be constructed.[1][2]
The original prison was a wooden structure 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][3] As of 2008 Brushy Mountain was the oldest operating prison in Tennessee.
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 two days later in a wooded area less than three miles from the prison.[1]
The prison was closed in 1972 after a strike by prison guards protesting unsafe working conditions. It reopened in 1976.[1][2]
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. The last warden was Jim Worthington.[4][5]
The prison closed June 11, 2009.[6] Its functions were transferred to the Morgan County Correctional Complex.[1] Morgan County officials hope to convert the facility to other uses, including a museum and a jail to serve Morgan and surrounding counties.[7]
A small historical museum on the prison property displays old record books, photos, and news articles.[3]
[edit] Notable inmates
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.[5][8]
[edit] Fictional
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This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2009) |
A notable, albeit fictional, occasional inmate is Otis Lee Crenshaw, the trailer-dwelling country music singer created by comedian Rich Hall.[9]
Another fictional inmate was Ray McDeere, the brother of protagonist Mitch McDeere, in the novel The Firm.
In the novel The Silence of the Lambs, Dr. Hannibal Lecter makes a deal in which he is to be transferred to the prison in exchange for information about the serial killer Buffalo Bill that would enable authorities to rescue his latest victim, Katherine Martin, the daughter of junior state senator Ruth Martin. His information was later proven false by Clarice Starling and he escapes before he arrives at the prison.
The prison also figures in the novel Suttree by Cormac McCarthy.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f Todd South, Bars closing on Brushy Mountain after 113 years, Chattanooga Times Free Press, April 5, 2009
- ^ a b Frank Lee and Robert Rogers, Tennessee Prison System, Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, accessed November 1, 2009
- ^ a b Brushy Mountain Correctional Complex Prison Tours, Tennessee Department of Correction website, accessed November 8, 2008
- ^ Brushy Mountain Correctional Complex page, archived from Tennessee Department of Corrections website
- ^ a b Lindsay Ziliak, Brushy Mountain inmates transferred as prison shuts down after 113 years, Knoxville News Sentinel, June 8, 2009
- ^ Brushy Mountain Closing Ceremony, Tennessee Department of Correction press release, June 2009
- ^ Whitney Holmes, Morgan Co. executive has grand plan for Brushy Mountain, WATE-TV website, September 22, 2009; accessed November 1, 2009
- ^ Officer killed during prisoner escape at Roane Co. court house, WATE-TV website, August 9, 2005, accessed November 1, 2009
- ^ Crystal James, Otis Lee Crenshaw with Special Support Act Rich Hall (USA), Editorial Review on CitySearch Adelaide website, February 2009
- ^ Jack Neely, The End of Brushy Mountain, Metropulse, June 10, 2009
[edit] External links
- Brushy Mountain Correctional Complex page on Tennessee Department of Corrections website (archived)
- Photo of prison
- Lindsay Ziliak, Brushy Mountain inmates transferred as prison shuts down after 113 years, Knoxville News Sentinel, June 8, 2009. Includes a video of the prison and its grounds.
