Gov. Bill Lee's criminal justice group calls for state to rewrite sentencing laws

Tennessee should rewrite its sentencing laws as part of an effort to confront a ballooning prison population, according to a report released Thursday by Gov. Bill Lee's criminal justice task force.

Lee created the task force this year to address overcrowded jails and prisons, and to consider the fact that nearly half of the people released from those facilities wind up returning.

The group compiled a 38-page report that gave an unsparing assessment of criminal justice in Tennessee.

The state's incarcerated population grew 12% over the last decade, driven by longer sentences for nonviolent drug crimes. In the same period, the state parole board release rate plummeted, and 40% of people who got parole were not released early.

None of that made the state safer, the task force found.

"Despite incarcerating more people and spending over $1 billion annually on corrections in the state budget, Tennessee has the fourth highest violent crime rate in the nation," the report read.

"These trends are especially noteworthy in light of 34 states reducing both their imprisonment and crime rates during the same period."

The report was built around a statistical analysis of the prison population and the criminal justice system.

Inmates spent an average of 11 months more behind bars in fiscal year 2018 than their counterparts did in 2009, the report found. That amounted to an additional 7,355 years in prison for the 2018 inmates.

Women made up a significant portion of the growing prison population. Between 2009 and 2018, the female population in prisons grew by 47%, the report found.

The report included 23 recommendations for the governor and state lawmakers that will likely shape Lee's legislative priorities through the end of his term.

Those recommendations included:

• Rewriting the criminal code and sentencing matrix. The report calls for further work on this topic in 2020, with legislation coming in 2021.
• Investing in "behavioral health" treatments that can divert more people out of jail and prison, and boosting treatment available behind bars.
• Changing state rules that keep people in prison for their full sentence and then release them with no support or supervision.
• Reducing prison time for some technical parole and probation violations, and shortening the maximum amount of time people can be kept on probation.
• Expanding services for inmates released from incarceration.
   

On Thursday, Lee said the work was "the culmination of something that I've had in my heart for years."

"It's not the end. It's just the beginning," Lee said. "I'm excited about the moment."

House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, said he was looking forward to carrying policies recommended in the report through the legislature.

"I think there's some easy wins right out of the gate," Lamberth said, mentioning counseling in prisons and added re-entry programming in particular.

Lee's senior advisor Brandon Gibson said it was too soon to say which of the recommendations would make their way into the governor's legislative package in 2020. But she said building support for mental health and substance abuse treatment would likely be an early priority.

"I think you'll see real movement on those," she said.

Reach Adam Tamburin at atamburin@tennessean.com or 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.