Pubdate: Thu, 07 Feb 2002
Source: Kingsport Times-News (TN)
Copyright: 2002 Kingsport Publishing Corporation
Contact:  http://www.timesnews.net/index.cgi
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1437
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not reside in print circulation area, unless they are former residents or 
have some current connection to Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

TENNESSEE LAWMAKERS AREN'T ADEQUATELY FUNDING STATE PRISON SYSTEM

Tough sentencing policies aimed at getting criminals off the streets and 
keeping them behind bars have begun to turn the tide against crime in 
Tennessee and across the nation. But many local jails are overcrowded and 
outdated. And, with the inmate population continuing to swell, the 
situation is becoming a critical concern.

A state report finds that things are going to get a lot worse. Tennessee's 
inmate population will increase 30 percent in the next decade, according to 
the "Future Felon Population" report released by the Tennessee Department 
of Correction. Such an increase would leave nearly 5,000 inmates without 
beds unless new prisons are built or present facilities expanded.

According to the report, there was a 2.1 percent rise in the number of 
state prisoners during the past fiscal year - from 22,634 to 23,120. That's 
actually lower than the previous year, which saw a 2.3 percent increase. 
But the most recent slide in the crime rate isn't expected to continue. For 
the next decade, the report predicts, the average annual increase is 
projected to be 2.6 percent.

There are 21,591 men and 1,471 women incarcerated in state prisons. But 
that number doesn't count the hundreds more serving time in local jails. A 
healthy number of inmates at the Sullivan County Jail - historically about 
a quarter of those incarcerated - are state prisoners being held here 
because the state has no room for them. State law says those prisoners are 
supposed to be sent to state-run facilities within two weeks of their 
sentencing. But Tennessee's penny-pinching lawmakers haven't exactly been 
keen on paying the freight for the laws they pass.

In Virginia, the state covers between 25 to 50 percent of local jail 
construction costs depending on how large an area the jail serves. That 
kind of financial support would be of immense help to taxpayers in 
communities across Tennessee who have had to set aside millions in local 
tax dollars for jail construction and renovations.

The report from Tennessee's corrections department ought to be a wake-up 
call of sorts for the state's lawmakers. In recent years, it's grown 
increasingly clear they are more interested in passing popular laws that 
promise to lock criminals away than in adequately funding the state prison 
system.

Like schools, roads or other aspects of government, the incarceration of 
criminals in the state's prisons and local jails needs adequate funding. It 
is fundamentally unfair and shortsighted for lawmakers to pass tougher laws 
even as they skimp on state prisons to house offenders.

Local jails have become the dumping grounds for state criminals. With the 
level of overcrowding Tennessee's jails and prisons are currently 
experiencing, a new series of federal lawsuits may well be in the offing.

Doing nothing is not an option. Tennessee has the seventh highest murder 
rate in the nation, the fifth highest involving the use of fire-arms; the 
ninth highest incidence of rape; and a robbery rate fourth highest. The 
state is eighth in rate of aggravated assaults and seventh in the nation in 
motor vehicle thefts.

If state lawmakers don't soon find the money to address Tennessee's growing 
prison population, the only option is to release murderers, rapists and 
thieves on an accelerated basis to free up space for the next batch.

The Future Felon Population report makes clear that tinkering around the 
edges cannot, for long, withstand the adverse trends that are at work in 
our prisons, let alone reverse them. This is an issue that cannot wait for 
the recession to end. It needs attention from the governor and the 
legislature. And it needs it now.
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MAP posted-by: Jackl