TRICOR was created in 1994 by the Tennessee General Assembly and is governed by a Board of Directors appointed by the Governor. Our board members represent various fields including manufacturing, business and corporate law, fiscal management, human resources, agriculture, organized labor, the Department of Correction, and the Tennessee State Employees Association.

The agency was created to provide occupational and life skills training for Tennessee’s incarcerated population through job training, program opportunities, and transitional services designed to assist offenders with a successful reintegration into society.

TRICOR’s philosophy is to effectively manage revenue supported industry, agriculture, and service operations for the purpose of employing and training offenders, providing quality products and services, and assisting in transition services, all of which reduces the cost of government. The corporate level mission defines the purpose of TRICOR’s existence, our vision continues to act as the compass by which we look to the future, and our values are the principles that guide our actions. 

Our Mission

To prepare offenders for success after release.  

Our Vision

We are a preferred source of skilled labor for the workforce in Tennessee.

Core Values

Our actions are guided by the following values:

Customer-Focused Culture:
Customers become promoters because we deliver a WOW experience through partnership, collaboration, knowledge, service, communication, action, and extra effort.

People First:
We help people achieve better lives; encourage personal growth; be courageous; respect all people and society; and foster a sense of teamwork and community.

Lead by Example:
We model integrity, courage, and compassion. Strong leadership builds trust and inspires others to do the right thing every time.

Right Today, Better Tomorrow:
We encourage and expect people to get better every day through learning, growth, and continuous improvement leading to business excellence.

Self-Sufficiency:
We are an organization that pays our own way. Each person is a contributor and understands the value of providing a benefit to society through self-sufficiency.

TRICOR is financially self-supporting, generating 100 percent of our revenue through the sale of quality products and services. Our operations, in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC), are located in ten facilities throughout the state. In Fiscal Year 2010, we provided occupational skills training to 1,625 offenders. Through this partnership, TRICOR saved taxpayers over $4,000,000 in supervision and programming costs last year. Through private industry partnerships and service operations, TRICOR's offender workforce has cumulatively transferred over $776,000 from deductions in wages into the Tennessee Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund for victims' compensation.

TRICOR operates in three spheres of influence which include business, social, and government. We must continually evaluate our performance in these sectors to assure the organization maintains its focus and balance, ensuring our double bottom line – working together to operate a financially sound business while moving forward with the social mission of providing opportunities for people to make significant life changes – is met.

Almost 700,000 people are released annually from prisons across the nation. Over 15,000 of those people are released from Tennessee prisons and jails. On any given day, TRICOR works with as many as 1,000 men and women to prepare and equip them to function more successfully while incarcerated and upon their return to the community. TRICOR recognizes that it must operate as a learning organization to fully embrace our mission and realize our vision. We must link individual performance with organizational performance, which includes our entire workforce of both staff and offenders. Through our Workforce Development Initiative, we are providing individual and collective learning opportunities for the entire TRICOR workforce. This systems-thinking approach has made TRICOR a unique leader in the field of correctional industries.