The "Alcatraz of the South" By: Katrina Wiens Visitor Gate Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary was not a place where men were sent to be rehabilitated; they were sent here to die. Whether it be of natural causes, execution, or violence- being sent to Brushy Mountain State Prison was the end of the line. The worst of the worst were sent to the first maximum security prison in the state of Tennessee. James Earl Ray, Byron Looper, George Hyatte, and many more men would call this place home in the prison’s 113 years in operation. Outside Wall. Located in Petros, Tennessee, the idea for Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary came in the aftermath of the Coal Creek War in 1891. Local miners protested the use of unpaid convict leasing in the local mines, and after a Tennessee Legislators ruled in favor of the citizens, the state of Tennessee decided to begin its own mining operation. With the help of geologists, the location of the prison was determined. When Brushy M...