ASHLAND CITY, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Cheatham County officials are searching for solutions to overcrowding and violence inside the jail after more than 50 inmates engaged in a violent fight early Tuesday morning, according to WKRN News 2.

Sheriff Mike Breedlove told News 2 overcrowding in the facility is creating conditions that put inmates and corrections officers in serious danger.

According to the Cheatham Co. Sheriff’s Office, a shirtless inmate from Pod C broke through a barrier into Pod D around 3 a.m. on Tuesday.

At that time 53 men were in the confined space where groups began fighting with each other. As more men joined in on the fight, the situation quickly escalated.

“There’s a walk-through door and it was locked, and they were able to breach it by beating on it for a while,” Breedlove told News 2.

The fight, caught on camera, starts on the stairs where the shirtless murder suspect starts to fight a family member of the person he’s accused of killing.

Corrections officers attempt to stop the fight but were outnumbered.

“Right now, we cannot sustain the amount of inmates we have and the amount of people being sent to jail,” Breedlove said.

According to Breedlove, part of the problem is the age of the jail — it’s 32 years old and was only designed to hold 116 inmates.

On the morning of the fight, officials said there were 192 inmates in the jail, which is 76 people over capacity.

“[The jail is] not built for this, and we are having a lot of issues right now — we are in dire straits,” Breedlove said.

Several prisoners and corrections officers were taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

“It’s lucky no one died here,” Breedlove said. “Absolutely, the clock is ticking, and that is our chief concern. This was such a dangerous, volatile issue.”

Six of the most violent offenders involved in the brawl were sent to the Robertson County Jail for safekeeping at the expense of Cheatham Co. taxpayers. Each inmate costing citizens $55 per day to house out of the county.

Multiple prisoners are now being charged with additional felonies.

“This is a dire situation that is getting worse over time,” Breedlove said. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt or killed — that is our biggest fear.”