Faced with a Tennessee violent crime rate higher than the national average, a task force appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam has recommended longer prison stays for more serious offenders and for people convicted of repeated times for home burglary, drug trafficking and domestic violence.
Further from the News Sentinel:
The panel also recommended changing state law to provide “truth in sentencing” for felony convicts that result in a clear minimum period of incarceration known to victims, defenders and everyone else at the time of sentencing. Currently, convicts are given a release eligibility date that is a minimum 30 percent of the sentence but good-behavior credits earned in prison can shave more time off that.
The governor appointed the 27-member Task Force on Sentencing and Recidivism a year ago to examine whether the state’s sentencing system, in place since 1989, is in line with the variety and severity of criminal behavior today.
The panel completed its work in a meeting at the State Capitol Thursday and delivered its recommendations to the governor, who will decide which to present to the state Legislature for action when it reconvenes in January.
The task force was comprised of judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officials, public defenders, state lawmakers, local officials and others involving in the criminal justice system, including Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich, Shelby County Mayor Bill Oldham, Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch, state Rep. John DeBerry, D-Memphis, state Sens. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown and Becky Duncan Massey, R-Knoxville and state Court of Criminal Appeals Judge D. Kelly Thomas of Knoxville.
State Safety and Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons, who chaired the task force, said after the two-hour meeting, that there are four “key elements” that came out of the group’s work. “No. 1, there was an early consensus in the task force that we needed some form of truth-in-sentencing in Tennessee so that everybody from the victim to the defendant, the prosecutor to the defense lawyer to the judge would all know that that individual sentenced to prison would be serving a certain period of time. Right now, it’s a moving target.
“No. 2, there was a consensus that we need to make smart use of our prison beds by using those prison beds for the more serious offenders. No. 3, we need to be smart in coming up with effective alternatives for the less serious offenders. And then No. 4, we really need to do a better job in reducing the number of repeat offenders — our recidivism rate,” Gibbons said.
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Note: The task force report is HERE.