Community Corrections Shift Catches Tennessee Lawmaker Unaware

By Sam Stockard, Tennessee Lookout

August 18, 2022

State Rep. Andrew Farmer, a Sevierville attorney, was caught off guard in Circuit Court a week ago when, inexplicably, the judge started moving offenders off Community Corrections into state probation.

“It just blew my mind,” says Farmer, a Sevierville Republican who chairs the House Civil Justice Committee and serves on the Criminal Justice Committee.

The way Judge Rex Henry Ogle explained it, the Legislature had cut funding for the Community Corrections, leaving no option but to shift non-probatable people out of the nearly 40-year-old program.

But Farmer, also a member of the House Criminal Justice Committee, knew better. The General Assembly had not passed any bills to dismantle the intensive probation program, instead telling the Department of Correction to keep it intact.

What he didn’t realize was that Gov. Bill Lee’s administration set up a request for grant proposals that made it nearly impossible for Community Corrections programs to function, using the contract process to phase it out and push offenders into state probation.

I just think if you’re going to make a big move like that, then we should have been consulted. Of course, we were in session and it didn’t have the votes to pass legislatively. That should tell whoever thought it was a good idea that maybe it’s not such a good idea and maybe we should look at it a little more.

– Rep. Andrew Farmer, R-Sevierville, on a move by Gov. Bill Lee's administration to sidestep the legislature

“That’s not a good thing … because Community Corrections, they’ve worked hard, they help folks in a lot of ways,” Farmer says, especially in rural areas.

The program has been doing the job for decades in urban areas as well.

One Nashville probationer told the Tennessee Lookout recently the program saved his life. And officials with Davidson County Community Corrections believe the forced phase-out will wind up putting more people into prison because they won’t get the attention from state probation officers they receive from Community Corrections officers.

What irked Farmer, though, was that he didn’t know contracts were wrapping up at the end of June and several Community Corrections organizations across the state opted not to renew because of hardships placed on them by the state’s new requirements.

“We have representatives and senators for a reason. … I just think if you’re going to make a big move like that, then we should have been consulted,” Farmer says. “Of course, we were in session and it didn’t have the votes to pass legislatively. That should tell whoever thought it was a good idea that maybe it’s not such a good idea and maybe we should look at it a little more.”

Farmer believes the Legislature should dig into the matter to see why the Department of Correction went a new direction, putting more emphasis on day reporting and intensive outpatient centers, although the $13.9 million cost is not changing.

Legislators such as Reps. Andrew Farmer and Chris Todd want answers from the Department of Correction because they feel the Lee Administration went around the General Assembly after it turned down the move a year ago to shift away from Community Corrections.

He’s also concerned that probationers could wind up paying higher fees and might not get credit for time on Community Correction toward their sentences.

State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, chairman of the Fiscal Review Committee, is promising to hold hearings on the administration’s request for grant proposals and subsequent phase-out.

State Rep. Chris Todd is irritated, too, that the Lee Administration gave the impression that the program would be maintained but then appears to have gone the opposite direction. The Jackson Republican says the Government Operations Committee should delve into the situation because judges and attorneys tell him the program works.

Specifically, judges say the change “will not end well,” Todd says. “You’re taking your eyes off these folks and gonna put them in a situation where they’re gonna fail.”

For nearly 40 years, judges have been sentencing people to Community Corrections when they are ineligible for normal probation, a last-gasp effort to keep them out of prison. If they violate Community Corrections guidelines, they will serve time, but proponents of the program say they receive more intensive supervision than they would from under-staffed state probation.

“If these folks all of a sudden go over to state oversight, they’re not going to (have) as positive outcome. There’s no way it can be,” says Todd, a Jackson Republican. “They cannot handle the volume by just flipping that switch.”

District Attorney General Jody Pickens in Madison County, meanwhile, says the 26th Judicial District is “heartbroken” over the move away from Community Corrections, which does the best job of supervising offenders of any entity in the district.

“It’s bad for all involved,” Pickens says.

Community Corrections is “responsive” to the community’s needs, in one instance setting up a program to deal with domestic violence and stop people from battering their partners.

“It’s less likely for them to ignore the orders of the court because they know there’s an accountability factor there,” says Pickens, likening it to a drug court that keeps a close eye on offenders to stop addiction.

Pickens, Todd and most lawmakers remain unclear why the state shifted its emphasis.
The Department of Correction, however, contends it didn’t eliminate Community Corrections programs, saying the request for grant proposals instead focused on increasing treatment for offenders in underserved areas.

The request for grant proposals was released in January with a May 6 deadline to apply for a contract. The state awarded 14 contracts, most of them to Community Corrections programs, but two major ones in Madison County and Knox County declined to submit a proposal. A third one was disqualified for not filing on time.

Within those awards, seven are for day reporting centers, six for outpatient treatment programs and one for a residential treatment program, and they include supervision, according to Department of Correction spokeswoman Dorinda Carter.

“There is clear evidence that increased treatment opportunities and risk-based supervision provide better outcomes for Tennesseans, from a public safety, health, family and community perspective,” Carter said in answer to questions. “Tennessee continues to experience reductions in recidivism through the use of best practices and increased treatment opportunities.”

Nevertheless, Davidson County Community Corrections officials say their program is being phased out. And three of the largest programs in the state opted not to participate.

Legislators such as Farmer and Todd, though, want answers from the Department of Correction because they feel the Lee Administration went around the General Assembly after it turned down the move a year ago to shift away from Community Corrections.

Gov. Lee has said he would be willing to work with the Legislature to resolve the matter. But by the time the Legislature goes back into session, most contracts will be six months old. It is unclear whether Gardenhire will be able to schedule hearings this fall.

Says Farmer, “It’s definitely something that needs to be looked at, talked about and explained to the members of the General Assembly, why this happened the way it did, because I was literally sitting in court when this was going on.”

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