TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Oct 4, 2022

Prison reform advocate, Alex Friedmann, has agreed to a settlement with the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) over their use of solitary confinement for pretrial detainees, the Associated Press reports. Friedmann sued TDOC last year for the restrictive conditions of the “hardened” cell at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution he was housed in for nearly two years before he’d been convicted of a crime. He was at the facility under a “safekeeper” order, which allows some pretrial inmates to be housed in a state prison instead of local jail. According to the settlement, TDOC agreed to a series of changes to safekeeper policies. Friedmann says he waived all monetary damages in favor of the policy changes. He was arrested in 2020 for hiding three handguns, ammunition, handcuff keys and hacksaw blades inside the walls of Nashville’s new jail during construction. Friedmann was convicted in July and is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday.