Legal action to investigate what happened in Bledsoe County

April 27, 2020 Update #2

Today under the Tennessee Open Records Act, I wrote to the Department of Corrections requesting an opportunity to inspect or obtain copies of public records that reveal communications in relation to the Bledsoe County Correctional Facility and all Tennessee state prisons with regard to:

(1) the timeline and rationale of the decision to test employees, guards, and prisoners for COVID-19;

(2) the timeline of implementation of testing of employees, guards, and prisoners for COVID-19; and

(3) the timeline of distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) to employees, guards, and prisoners.

April 27, 2020 Update #1

I’ve receive confidential information from two employee within the prison that they didn’t receive appropriate PPE until last week.

ORIGINAL POST

I spent the day on the ground investigating the government’s response to the coronavirus throughout our state.

I was deeply troubled by what I saw in several communties, but particularly by what I encountered in Bledsoe County, Tennessee.

In the past week, 578 prisoners at the Bledsoe County Correctional Facility tested postive for the coronavirus. Approximately 1,000 more cases are pending.

It is unfathomable to me that the government waited until April 19 to test prisoners when the president declared a national emergency over a month earlier.

My campaign will be filing legal papers with the State of Tennessee in order to get the government to publicly disclose why it took them 37 days to test prisoners for the virus.

The government’s inaction at one of the region’s biggest employers has put the people in the surrounding communities at risk.

What’s more? Not a single worker at the prison is getting extra hazard pay by our government.

I’m thankful that today the state tested 364 of Bledsoe County’s 15,000 residents, but less than 36 hours before Governor Lee’s proposed partial reopening of the state, these new developments are deeply troublesome

Congressman DesJarlais hasn’t said a word about what’s happening to the citizens of Bledsoe County.

I refuse to be silent. I refuse to stand still. I will use all means available and necessary in Bledsoe County and throughout the state to ensure that the lives and livelihoods people of Tennessee are protected by our government.