Tennessee Candidate Calls for Investigation of Jail Deaths

Elliott Schuchardt, a candidate for the Tennessee General Assembly, is calling for stricter rules on deaths in Tennessee’s jails.

On January 30, 2026, a 14-year-old child died while in custody in the Blount County jail. Schuchardt says that the child’s death indicates a larger problem in the state.

In Tennessee, the inmate death rate has doubled in the past twenty years. During that time, the inmate population has remained roughly the same.

Schuchardt says that Tennessee does not have adequate oversight of the system. For example, Core Civic, a private company, operates four prisons in Tennessee. These prisons house about one-third of the state's inmates. Nevertheless, Core Civic prisons account for more than half of the inmate deaths in Tennessee. The homicide rate at Core Civic prisons is four times higher than that at state-operated prisons.

The Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, operated by Core Civic, is particularly notorious. Between 2019 and 2022, the Trousdale Turner facility had 98 inmate deaths. Even more troubling, Trousdale Turner had 15 deaths labeled as "accidental" between July 2022 and June 2023.

Schuchardt questions whether these deaths are actually accidental. "I practiced law for many years," he says. "You simply don't have that many accidental deaths at a single facility in one-year," he notes. Schuchardt suspects that some of these deaths were actually murders that haven't been properly investigated by the state.

The numbers support Schuchardt's concern. More than 25% of inmate deaths in 2025 are classified as "pending" a final determination. "This suggests that Tennessee is not doing enough to investigate these matters," he says.

"The 'accidental deaths' bring to mind the death of the 14-year-old child in the Blount County jail," Schuchardt says. "Blount County reported this death to the media as a 'medical emergency," he says. "The community is due an explanation as to what caused the emergency," says Schuchardt.

In 2025, Tennessee passed a law that penalizes private prison operators if their death rates are consistently twice the average of state-run prisons. Schuchardt says the law needs to be tightened up. "Tennessee has shown that it can operate safer prisons. If Core Civic can't clean up its operations, then we need to put someone else in charge who can actually do the job," he says. "Double the state death rate is not acceptable," he notes.

Deaths at the County Jails

Questionable deaths are occurring at both state prisons and at county jails. For example, Tennessee's county jails reported over 250 deaths since 2020. Some counties have unusually high inmate death rates. For example, the Shelby County jail reported more than 60 deaths, since 2019. This is three times higher than the national average.

Schuchardt points to one death at a county jail that is particularly troubling. On July 9, 2023, Clinton Dale Buchanan died in the jail. Shortly thereafter, an inmate filed a pleading with the Claiborne County Criminal Court claiming that a guard killed Buchanan. That inmate said that there were numerous witnesses to the death. The pleading was available for review by the local district attorney and the local judge.

To Schuchardt’s knowledge, there has been no investigation of the death. Schuchardt has spoken to two of the witnesses to the alleged homicide. As of early 2026, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has not interviewed either of the witnesses, regarding the death.

Problems with the System

Schuchardt says that there are two problems with the system.

First, Tennessee is not reporting deaths, as required by federal law. According to the “Death in Custody Reporting Act,” both state prisons and county jails are required to report deaths involving violence, accidents, or suspicious circumstances to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). That, apparently, is not happening.

In 2021, the television station WBIR reported that 602 people died in custody in Tennessee jails between 2017 and 2020. According to the station, only 44% of these deaths were reported to the TBI.

Second, Tennessee does not require an investigation of a death at the county level, unless the local district attorney requests an investigation. Schuchardt says that an investigation should be mandatory in deaths involving violence.

Schuchardt is the author of America’s Achilles Heel: How to Protect Your Family When America Loses the Reserve Currency. The book argues that the U.S. dollar is artificially-overvalued, due to the dollar's use as the world's reserve currency. The book argues that the United States needs to devalue the dollar, to remain competitive in the world economy.

Schuchardt practiced law for nearly thirty years, before running for office. He focused his legal practice on civil liberties issues in the courts.