MC Crime Talk takes a trip to Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary
June 1, 2023
Maryville College’s criminal justice club MC Crime Talk visited Historic Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary on April 16.
At the historic site, MC Crime Talk went on a private tour of the facilities to learn about history and context behind the prison. The club got to see how the prison was structured, how it operated and what the prisoners experienced.
Located in Morgan County, Tennessee, in the community of Petros, Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary opened in 1896, and the mountainous terrain made it one of the most foreboding institutions in the state penal system. Famous for the incarceration of James Earl Ray, convicted of assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., Brushy Mountain was the oldest operating prison in the state at the time of its 2009 closure.
As part of the club’s semester-long theme of “Crime in Appalachia,” visiting Brushy Mountain seemed like the perfect conclusion, Eden Hensley ‘23, the president of MC Crime Talk, remarked.
“MC Crime Talk was reintroduced to Maryville College after MC Criminal Minds was disbanded due to Dr. Regina Benedict’s passing,” Hensley said, referring to the late MC professor credited with building the College’s Criminal Justice major. “We wanted to honor Dr. Benedict and the events and work that the previous club did. So, we revamped it.”
Kaylee Savell ‘25 , the treasurer of MC Crime Talk, explained that her favorite part of the visit was the chance to speak with a former inmate about their experiences at Brushy Mountain.
“My favorite part of our visit to Brushy was learning about a piece of Tennessee’s correctional system history and hearing firsthand from a former inmate about how Brushy operated and treated the prisoners housed there. Seeing the grounds, we could better imagine what life would have been like in Petros when the prison was in operation until 2009 and see the danger and fear of those who lived, worked, and existed in and around the prison.”
Dr. Rachel Ponder, advisor to MC Crime Talk and assistant professor of criminal justice, explained why the trip is so beneficial to students of Criminal Justice at Maryville College.
“It was a good way for students to see how the prison system can impact lives both inside and outside the prison walls,” she said. “We talk about prisons as institutions in the classroom, but rarely can students stand inside cells and witness the magnitude of such structures. We are fortunate to have Brushy in our backyard, and I plan to take students regularly.”
