Protesters arrested after blocking CoreCivic headquarters in Nashville

Natalie Allison | The Tennessean

Officers worked for hours Monday to unchain protesters as they occupied the property of a private prison company's corporate headquarters, shutting down Nashville-based CoreCivic's office building for the day.

As of Monday afternoon, the Metro Nashville Police Department had arrested at least 19 of the few dozen protesters on trespassing charges, some of whom had locked themselves to cement-filled barrels to block parking garage entrances to the office.

Woman detained at CoreCivic during protest Police take a woman in handcuffs during a protest at CoreCivic's Nashville headquarters Monday, Aug. 6, 2018

"We have no intention of leaving," said the Rev. Jeannie Alexander from No Exceptions Prison Collective. "It's a nonviolent, peaceful resistance."

Alexander said protesters "do not recognize this as private property," claiming the protesters by their actions had appropriated the grounds for the people of Tennessee.

Alexander was later arrested and carried away, being loaded into a police van by her hands and feet.

One protester, a woman sitting atop a 20-foot tripod fashioned from wooden beams, was brought down by special operations officers after nine and a half hours and the use of the department's mobile ramp truck.

CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America, is one of the nation's largest owners and operators of private prisons, operating roughly 65 facilities across 19 states, including the Metro Davidson County Detention Facility on Harding Place.

The company contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and runs eight immigration detention centers, but has repeatedly declined to provide current copies of its contracts to operate these facilities.

Public records requests with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are pending.

CoreCivic responds

In a statement, CoreCivic said activists are distorting the private prison operator's role in immigration detention.

"CoreCivic plays a valued but limited role in America’s immigration system, which we have done for every administration – Democrat and Republican – for more than 30 years," said company spokeswoman Amanda Gilchrist in an email Monday morning.

"While we know this is a highly charged, emotional issue for many people, much of the information about our company being shared by special interest groups is wrong and politically motivated, resulting in some people reaching misguided conclusions about what we do."

Earlier this year, CoreCivic released a statement saying the company does not house children who are separated from a parent.

A huge bus from the Davidson County Sheriff's Office is here and an ambulance just arrived. The bus looks like it's used for transporting detainees. Protesters have moved their trampoline in front of the tripod to block the truck when it comes over. pic.twitter.com/QHtRVGkbO1 — Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) August 6, 2018

Here the cops are trying to figure out how they're going to get these people up who have locked their hands inside of barrels full of cement weighing hundreds of pounds. pic.twitter.com/pdD4FVeCzD — Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) August 6, 2018

CoreCivic faces criticism

Ashley Dixon, a former CoreCivic correctional officer who worked at the state's largest private prison, Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, until she quit about eight months ago, was among the protesters arrested.

"I quit because I witnessed two people die due to medical neglect," she said. Two of the dozens of tombstone signs protesters put up bore the names of those two inmates, Jonathan Salada and Jeff Mihm.

Dixon made similar allegations in late 2017 during a legislative hearing. CoreCivic said it investigated her statements and were unable to find sufficient evidence to substantiate several of her claims.

Protesters block CoreCivic headquarters Protesters are occupying and blocking the entrance to CoreCivic's Nashville headquarters

Tennessee pays the company hundreds of millions of dollars to operate four state prisons and several county detention facilities. State lawmakers have criticized the company for its operations in the past, while state prison officials have vowed closer scrutiny of private prison operations.

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As the protest continued, several CoreCivic employees waited by their cars in a parking lot across the street from the entrance.

Gilchrist said later Monday that employees who work in the building had been advised not to report to work there until the standoff was resolved, but that "CoreCivic employees continued with normal operations companywide."

There are about 10 CoreCivic employees waiting by their cars in a parking lot across from the entrance. I talked to a few and some of them seem pretty freaked out and unsure what they're supposed to be doing. pic.twitter.com/JdRjxxdjND — Natalie Allison (@natalie_allison) August 6, 2018

Nashville police on Monday afternoon said they would be tallying how many officers and man hours were used to respond to the protest, though that information wasn't immediately available.

The Davidson County Sheriff's Office, Office of Emergency Management and Department of Homeland Security also assisted with the response.

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.