The Nation - News from Dec. 26, 1985
Tennessee prisons had room to spare in advance of a federal judge’s Dec. 31 deadline to reduce the number of inmates of 15 state facilities to 7,019. Correction Department spokesman John Taylor said 6,963 adults were behind bars. In addition, the state had 88 empty beds at three reception centers for new inmates, in sharp contrast to overcrowding that led U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Higgins to order the prison system closed to all but the most dangerous new inmates as of Oct. 23 until all inmates had beds.
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