Gov Bill Haslam (file)

Governor Bill Haslam outlined a wide ranging public safety plan Thursday that includes 40 separate “action steps” – from increasing sentences to keeping tabs on who is taking prescribed pain killers.

A committee representing 11 state agencies drew up the plan, which has the stated goals of reducing drug abuse, cutting the number of repeat offenders and curbing violent crime. Several of the proposed steps would need approval of the legislature and more state funding. Governor Haslam says it’s worth the expense.

“Our violent crime rate is up at the very top. And I think these are things that we think can be addressed. Specifically some of the things we haven’t done in the past because of the fiscal note attached to it …and we’ve decided that these are important enough to go ahead and address and pay the costs involved.”

Six million dollars is what’s needed to increase use of drug courts for non-violent drug offenders and toughen mandatory sentencing for violent crimes, particularly those with guns. As part of the plan, the prison system would also take over supervision of prisoners released on parole or probation.

As for drug abuse, Haslam wants doctors to report any prescription of addictive painkillers to a statewide database, which is a potential lightening rod. In the past, doctors and pharmacists have resisted handing over otherwise confidential information to the state.

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Haslam calls the law enforcement review of patients’ pain prescriptions a step “to make it easier to identify abusers.” That data would be shared with other states.

Safety Commissioner Bill Gibbons said the new prescription drug intervention laws weren’t intended to allow police to paw through citizens’ medicine cabinets – or their prescription drug vials during a traffic stop.

“You’d still need probable cause,” Gibbons said. The new laws will address only painkillers and scheduled narcotics, not anti-depression drugs and high blood pressure medications, he said.

The governor and Gibbons dismissed the costs of the new prescription drug monitoring program as not significant – they didn’t give an estimate. The proposal would require doctors and pharmacists to enter such information into a database.

The governor also asked for tougher sentences for “certain types of gang-related crimes and for gun possession for felons with prior violent felony convictions.

A new step would be mandated prison time for repeat domestic violence offenders, many of whom are now steered to treatment programs.

Haslam noted that many of the proposed steps are already in place – a database for purchases of pseudoephedrine products used to make methamphetamines, a new statewide meth lab cleanup system, a new anti-meth communications effort, training of Highway Patrol troopers in drug interdiction, and a pilot program in Shelby County to start a “one-stop shop” to help former inmate return to their community.

Gibbons, who chaired the working group, says Tennessee’s violent crime rate is “far above the national average” and the highest in the Southeast. “This plan addresses many of the underlying factors that lead to crime in our state and takes a comprehensive approach to addressing the problem,” the safety commissioner said.

The FBI has this compilation of violent crime rates by state for 2010, which includes murder, rape, robbery and assault. Tennessee’s rate per 100,000 inhabitants is fifth down this list of the ten worst:

District of Columbia – 1,330.2
Nevada 660.6
Alasaka 638.8
Delaware 620.9
Tennessee 613.3
South Carolina 597.7
New Mexico 588.9
Louisiana 549.0
Maryland 547.7
Florida 542.4

And the bottom of the list:

New Hampshire 167
Vermont 130.2
Maine – 122