Today, we’re going to be stepping out of East Tennessee and heading towards Nashville. As a home to many haunted places, it holds the Tennessee State Prison, which closed in 1992 due to inhumane conditions.
The Tennessee State prison opened in 1898 and immediately became famous for its architecture. The prison was meant to hold 800 inmates, but once it was opened, it was forced to hold 1400. From there, the number only grew, sometimes even tripling its maximum capacity. This caused severe overcrowding that led to immense violence. Since the prison was maximum security, it was extremely strict, and inmates were forced to endure growing labor and would be punished for the slightest mistake due to the close supervision.
The Tennessee State prison was known to use solitary confinement. Solitary prisoners would be kept in a small, dark space that would often drive them to madness. There were dozens of reports of beatings and disease spreading, especially tuberculosis and the flu, that would wipe out many of the population. Another grueling factor of the prison is that it carried out executions specifically with the electric chair. The prison performed so many executions by electric chair that it even gained a nickname of “Old Sparky.” While the prison was open, there were over 120 executions performed by the chair.
Due to the severe mistreatment and overpopulation, riots and escape attempts were common. One of the most notable incidents occurred in 1938 when a group of inmates set fire to a portion of the prison due to the abusive treatment of being starved. In the 1970s, the Tennessee State prison was notorious for its unfair treatment of the prisoners, and in the 1980s, the court ruled it “unfit for human habitation.” It closed in 1992 due to an overflowing number of lawsuits that they could not fight.
Though the prison itself was shut down, it does still stand, and though it is illegal to be on the property, many people still venture out and report many different stories. The majority of these stories come from witnesses who say that they can still hear people screaming echoing throughout the empty hallways. Along with this, they hear footsteps on floors above or below them, or even worse, just down the hall from them. It’s reported that the doors swing open and slam shut with no rhyme or reason. Many people also often see dark shadows of people that will come and go before they can even process what is happening. Accompanying this is a sudden drop in temperature and chills that cover their whole body.
Since the prison is not open to the public, we may never know whether or not the stories of different haunting experiences are real, but what is real is the fact that while this prison was open, thousands of inmates were treated as less than human and hundreds were killed, which in itself is haunting enough.
