The Hamilton County Jail & Detention Center is located in
Chattanooga
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...
,
Hamilton County, Tennessee
Hamilton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located in the southern part of East Tennessee on the border with Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 366,207, making it the fourth-most populous county i ...
, and is operated by the
Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. The maximum capacity as of 2016 is 1046.
Always primarily used by the county, the facility has also had "an unusual mix of prisoners", murderers convicted by the state serving long terms, and DUI and traffic offenders in for a stretch of 48 hours. It has also taken federal inmates, such as pre-trial detainees held by the
U.S. Marshals Service
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforcem ...
.
The facility opened in the fall of 1984 with 325 beds. Its initial financial performance by May 1985 was disappointing for the county, after paying a per-head per-diem of $21 on an unexpectedly high number of prisoners.
Incidents
The Hamilton County Jail & Detention Center, formally known as Silverdale, was formally under the contract management of CoreCivic (formally Corrections Corporation of America CCA) and has been the frequent target of lawsuits. Former prisoner Countess Clemons, five months pregnant when incarcerated here on November 19, 2010, reached a $690,000 settlement with CCA for the loss of her baby through "deliberate indifference". As of June 2015 four former inmate lawsuits related to physical abuse and maltreatment were pending in federal court against CCA, with some also involving Hamilton County.
References
6. https://www.courthousenews.com/after-36-years-an-experiment-in-private-prisons-comes-to-an-end-in-tennessee/
Hamilton County Jail & Detention Center
Buildings and structures in Chattanooga, Tennessee
CoreCivic
1984 establishments in Tennessee
Government buildings completed in 1984
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