Clover Bottom
About Clover Bottom
Clover Bottom Development Center (CBDC) opened in 1923 as the Tennessee Home and Training School for the Feeble-minded Persons and admitted 248 persons during the first nine months of operation. By 1963 the census at the facility reached its all-time high of 1,563 residents.
During the 1960s two other institutions were built, Greene Valley Developmental Center (GVDC) in 1962 and Arlington Developmental Center (ADC) in 1968. These facilities eased the census stress at CBDC.
The suit of Saville et al vs. Treadway et al in 1975 resolved that each person with mental retardation had the right to treatment. As a result of this suit a plan was developed for CBDC to provide for individualized habilitative care and training programs. Another suit in the same time period did away with residents working in the facilities without pay. CBDC had long been a working farm for residents.
During the 1970s the census began to fall substantially. At the end of the State Fiscal Year 1970 the population was 1,311; in 1980, 715; in 1990, 544; in 2000, 269 and at the end of 2007, 151.
The Harold Jordan Center, located on the CBDC campus, is a facility for persons with mental retardation that have been charged with a crime. Residents are evaluated every six months to assure they meet admittance requirements. If a person is deemed competent to stand trial, that person is returned to incarceration.
