[5] In 1923, the Administrative Reorganization Act created the Department of Institutions, charged with the management of the Tennessee prison system.

In 1933, the General Assembly passed legislation that created an Industrial Division within the Department of Institutions.

Legislation established the Tennessee Internet Crime Information Center, which provides online registries of sex offenders, missing children, and out-of-state parole and probation supervision.

During the 100th Tennessee General Assembly, legislation was introduced to expand privatization of prison operations, but was deferred until the following session, when it was withdrawn from consideration.

The General Assembly also passed a bill that allowed members of a victim's immediate family to watch an execution through a closed television circuit in an area separate from other witnesses.

In 1998, the General Assembly established lethal injection as the method of execution for anyone that commits an offense on or after January 1, 1999.

In 2000, the Governor signed legislation making lethal injection, rather than electrocution, the standard method of execution for any person sentenced to death.

Additions may include one member of the defense counsel of the condemned as well as the Attorney General and the Reporter, or his or her designee.

In 2002, the state also launched the "Tennessee Bridges" program, with the Department of Correction and the Board of Probation and Parole receiving a 1 million dollar federal grant.

Bledsoe County Correctional Complex serves as reception and classification center for male offenders.

[6] As of 2016, Tennessee houses state inmates in four private prisons, all run by Corrections Corporation of America.

[9] Male death row prisoners are housed in the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.