Lois M DeBerry Special Needs Facility
Warden James M. Holloway
7575 Cockrill Bend Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37209-1057
(Davidson County)
(615) 350-2700
*Use the zip code 37209-1056 for offender correspondence.
The Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility (DSNF), located in Nashville, serves as the primary clinical and mental health facility in the state. With a maximum capacity of 854 inmates, DSNF houses minimum to maximum custody male inmates who require medical and/or mental health treatment on a permanent or temporary basis.
DSNF became operational in 1992, replacing DeBerry Correctional Institute and the Tennessee State Penitentiary. The facility was named in honor Representative Lois DeBerry, the first woman to be named speaker pro tempore of the Tennessee House of Representatives. This facility is home to the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) pharmacy, a state of the art, 14-bed Dialysis Clinic, and acts as the primary transit center for offenders transferring from one location to another.
It is the mission of DSNF to provide quality medical and mental health care in a setting that:
- Ensures a safe and secure environment for staff and inmates
- Provides services in a humane environment and is respectful of the rights and needs of the patient
- Ensures compliance with TDOC policies and American Correctional Association standards
In addition to having an assisted living unit, medical rehabilitation unit, health center, and emergency room at the facility, DSNF maintains a 12-bed secure ward in a Nashville-area hospital for offenders requiring a higher level of care or specialty procedure. Security staff are assigned to each inmate receiving care at the outside hospital. Unsentenced inmates from county jails throughout the state may be ordered by the court to be housed at DSNF due to their medical and/or mental health treatment needs. Further, the facility accepts “invitees” - people who have expired their sentence but choose to remain at the facility for treatment until their health is restored ((TCA § 41-21-204(e)).
DSNF offers its population evidence-based programs to meet the rehabilitative needs of offenders. Offenders have access to Adult Basic Education (ABE) and vocational programming including Career Management for Success. DeBerry DSNF is also the leading behavioral healthcare facility within TDOC, and offers psychotherapy, mental health support, sex offender treatment, substance use group therapy, and substance use aftercare. Mental health units are provided for offenders with acute mental health needs and designed to stabilize the offender through a step-down process.
At any given time, DSNF retains roughly 250 inmate workers to fill support service roles on the compound including food services, janitorial services, landscaping, inmate observers, and caregivers.
Watch the videos below to learn more about the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility.