Tennessee State Prison
This massive castle-like prison was built in 1898 and patterned after the penitentiary in Auburn, New York. From the day it opened the prison was grossly overcrowded and those conditions persisted until it closed in 1989. Each convict was expected to perform daily physical labor working up to 16 hours a day for meager rations in unheated, unventilated sleeping quarters. After numerous riots and prisoner escapees (some of which were never caught) the Federal Court issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the Tennessee Department of Corrections from ever housing inmates at the Tennessee State Prison. The facility has sat empty ever since.
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