Inmates Get Cold Showers
Putnam County's New Jail Addition Faces Early Setbacks
Chase Matheson - January 7, 2025
PUTNAM COUNTY -- As we sit in the middle of the first "Polar Vortex" of 2025 many inmates at the Putnam County, TN jail are worried they may lose their hot water. That's because, for the last month, there have been constant issues with the hot water in the facility.
Before Christmas the Patriot Punk Network received a plethora of complaints from inmates' families that the newly completed $60 million addition was having issues with the hot water. The families we spoke to say that at least some inmates went 14 consecutive days without any hot water. This was corroborated by a recently released inmate and Sheriff Farris also eluded to the troubles in his statement to the Herald Citizen earlier this month. The issues were reported to both the Department of Corrections and Sheriff Farris.
The Patriot Punk Network submitted a records request regarding the matter on December 17, 2024. On January 1st, a front page news article in the Herald Citizen quoted Sheriff Farris as saying, "We had a couple of small, minor issues with our new building. I think some of the water heaters had an issue, and we got that fixed."
Herald Citizen January 1, 2025 Front page
He failed to mention the severity of these issues left inmates with little to no hot water for two full weeks. He also seems to have jinxed the situation. The day after this article was released, we were told that the hot water was off again, but this time it was fixed within 24 hours.
We submitted our open records request on December 17, 2024. Though there were a few holidays which delayed the deadline, the time for the Putnam County Sheriff's Office to respond has passed. We were hoping to bring you a detailed list of the repairs the new facility's water heaters needed, but without the records we can only go off of what our other sources are saying. It appears the only way the Sheriff's office will talk to us is through a fake social media profile under the name "Luzerville Babies."
picture of commissioner clark from overton county news live feed
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The inmates we spoke to have alleged that there are also foundation issues, resulting in some blocks pulling away from other parts of the structure. Cookeville is built atop a large cave system and sinkholes and foundation settling are common occurrences. It's also been alleged that during the repairs fumes or exhaust was leaking into some cells requiring the food tray door to be left open for additional ventilation. These allegations have not been confirmed.
According to CTAS, the government-created technical consultant for municipalities in Tennessee, hot water is required to be provided to inmates. Failure to do so could be an 8th Amendment Violation against convicted prisoners, and a 14th Amendment Violation against those awaiting trial.
Screenshot From CTAS ELECTRONIC LIBRARY
In his statement to the Herald-Citizen, Sheriff Farris said the facility work is under control and that he's excited to be bringing in the additional money for housing federal prisoners. For more information or news reports about Putnam County Sheriff's Office you can subscribe to our Newsletter.
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