NASHVILLE, Tenn. >> The leading private prison company in the U.S. has spent more than $4.4 million to settle dozens of complaints alleging mistreatment — including at least 22 inmate deaths — at within Tennessee’s prisons and jails since 2016.

More than $1.1 million of those payouts involved Tennessee’s largest prison, the long-scrutinized Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, which is now under federal investigation.

Details of nearly 80 settlements that form the basis of the investigation and provided to The Associated Press through public records requests allege brutal beatings, medical neglect and cruelty at CoreCivic’s four prisons and two jails in Tennessee.

— The Associated Press