TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

Report: Community Corrections Shift ‘Catches Lawmaker Unaware’

Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Aug 19, 2022

State Rep. Andrew Farmer says he was caught off guard in circuit court a week ago when the judge started moving offenders off Community Corrections into state probation. “It just blew my mind,” says Farmer, a Sevierville Republican who chairs the state House Civil Justice Committee and serves on the Criminal Justice Committee. The judge overseeing the case in question said the legislature had cut funding for Community Corrections, leaving him no option but to shift non-probatable people out of the long-running program. Farmer says the legislature has taken no such action, and in fact, has encouraged the Department of Correction to keep the Community Corrections program in place. Sen. Todd Gardenhire, chairman of the Fiscal Review Committee, is promising to hold hearings on the administration’s handling of the program when the legislature reconvenes. Tennessee Lookout has more on the story. In a previous piece, the news source looked at how the Community Corrections program works.

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