WARTBURG, Tenn. — Known lock defects, ignored threats and a climate of fear inside the Morgan County Correctional Complex set the stage for the February death of Dustin Pedigo, a state corrections officer, according to findings from local grand jurors in a report filed Nov. 10.
Pedigo was stabbed on Feb. 24 while checking cell-door locks in a Security Management Unit housing block. The Morgan County Grand Jury said the inmate’s deliberate attack was the direct cause of his death, but that longstanding failures by the Tennessee Department of Correction made it possible. District Attorney General Russell Johnson released the report, which drew on a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe into institutional problems at the prison.
Jurors found that as far back as 2013, department leaders were aware that inmates could jam the narrow-gauge locks used at several prisons so a door can be forced. The Morgan County complex was put at the end of the statewide replacement list because it was considered the newest, and work there is not set to start until October 2028 or finish until October 2029. Extra locking hardware sat in storage at the prison and was put in only after the officer was dead.
The report also lists specific warnings that went unheeded. The inmate, Reginald Steed, wrote threatening letters to then-Commissioner Frank Strada and others, made threats on recorded calls, and drew alarms from a U.S. marshal and his own mother. He was nonetheless moved to a less restrictive phase of the unit on the day of the attack, a change that cut the escort for door checks from two officers to one.
Jurors said the unit offered little real rehabilitation and that staff who raised safety concerns or cooperated with investigators faced retaliation. Strada resigned and the warden retired around Oct. 31. Steed was indicted on a first-degree murder charge, and the state gave notice it would seek death, but he died in custody Sept. 22.
The grand jury filed no charges against administrators. It urged the state to replace locks based on risk rather than building age, require written threat assessments before easing restrictions, audit the unit, improve trauma care and protect whistleblowers. Copies went to the governor, state lawmakers and the interim commissioner.
Section: More Nashville TN crime news
Filed under: Nashville TN Crime News
