Family Sues After Man is Killed by Cellmate - Articles

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Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Feb 6, 2025

The family of Matthew Vogel is suing over his death at the South Central Correctional Facility in Clifton. Vogel, who had been sent back to jail for violating parole on a drug charge, had one day left in his sentence, the Tennessean reports. The family alleges that Vogel was inappropriately placed in a cell with Travis Bess, who had been convicted on two counts of first-degree murder in 2022 and of killing another man behind bars in 2014. Vogel was classified as a minimum security risk while Bess was classified to "close" security, two steps above "minimum" and one below "maximum" security. The wrongful death suit alleges that facility operator CoreCivic lacked justification to reduce the score and did so to "expend fewer resources due to chronic understaffing."