Tennessee State Penitentiary

Lore & Background

The second Tennessee State Penitentiary opened its 800 cells on February 12, 1898, immediately admitting 1,403 prisoners and setting a century-long precedent of overcrowding. Built by chief warden Enoch Guy Elliott using mostly prison labor, the facility featured 20-foot-high rock walls three feet thick. It housed men and women together after an initial 1892 wing failed to solve capacity issues. By 1974, when Johnny Cash arrived with Linda Ronstadt, Roy Clark, and Foster Brooks for a live recording session, the prison had already witnessed riots in 1975 and 1985, a mass escape in 1938, and a dramatic 1902 incident where sixteen prisoners blew out a wing to flee. The atmosphere was defined by strict discipline modeled after the Auburn system, where inmates labored silently during the day and slept alone at night.

Reader's Guide

To understand this location, note its exact position six miles west of downtown Nashville on Centennial Boulevard. The second structure, operational from 1898 to 1992, was constructed with 3-foot-thick rock walls and housed an administration building and factories within its grounds. Visitors should know the interior was declared off-limits in 2011 due to asbestos before the building suffered severe damage from an EF3 tornado on March 2–3, 2020. The site is famous for hosting Johnny Cash's 1974 live album recording with Linda Ronstadt, Roy Clark, and Foster Brooks. Prior to its closure in June 1992 following the opening of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, it endured decades of overcrowding that began on day one.

Did You Know?

• On August 4, 1902, sixteen prisoners blew out the end of one wing and escaped; two were never recaptured.
• A Federal Court issued a permanent injunction in 1993 prohibiting the Tennessee Department of Correction from ever housing inmates at the facility again.