TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Dec 29, 2020

Attorneys from the Choosing Justice Initiative last week filed an emergency motion urging the Tennessee Supreme Court to release people from jails and juvenile detention centers, WPLN reports. The petition cites a recent spike in COVID-19 cases and unsafe conditions in some facilities and asks the high court to require each judicial district to submit a new plan to reduce the number of people in their jails and juvenile detention centers. A similar motion was denied in the spring because courts had already asked districts to reduce their jail populations and many were released. But, according to the motion, jail populations have already increased again, from 19,126 on April 21 to 24,599 on Oct. 31. Attorneys also wrote that jails in more than 20 of the state’s 95 counties were at or above capacity.