Now Under Close Watch, Tennessee Task Force To Deliver New Sentencing Recommendations

A commission that’s been reviewing Tennessee’s sentencing laws will release its final recommendations Thursday morning.

The group has drawn scrutiny because working documents have shown it might recommend longer sentences for some crimes.

The Governor’s Task Force on Sentencing and Recidivism is weighing more prison time for three crimes: aggravated burglary, drug trafficking and domestic violence. But t
he
Vera Institute of Justice, an outside consultant that’s been advising the task force, told the group

earlier this month 
that, taken together, those ideas would
increase the size of Tennessee’s prison population.

Gov. Bill Haslam says that was not his goal.

“You know, certainly, we didn’t start this saying, ‘Oh, how can we have more people in prisons?'”

But Haslam says not to look at any of the group’s ideas in isolation. Even if some criminals wind up spending more time behind bars, the overall plan should
cut the number of prisoners. It’ll also provide ex-convicts with more help after their release.

The task force will hand its recommendations over to
another group led by state Safety Commissioner Bill Gibbons.

That panel will then decide what to do with them.