The bill … specifies that the state standards for the square footage of cells in new or existing local correctional facilities must be the minimum federal standards required by the “Performance-Based Standards for Adult Local Detention Facilities” of the American Correctional Association (ACA).  ACA standards require that local jails provide 35 square feet per inmate. At present, though, local jails in Tennessee have to comply with the more stringent 50-square-feet-per-inmate standard required by the Tennessee Corrections Institute (TCI). The standard of 50 square feet per inmate for a single cell was adopted in 1982 by an advisory committee of the TCI …

If a local jail in Tennessee does not meet the TCI standards, the TCI can take away the jail’s state certification. Loss of state certification would leave the local government much more vulnerable to inmate lawsuits.  “This measure will make sure that local jails are not decertified, an action which could cost taxpayers millions of dollars,” Southerland said of his bill.

He added, “It also helps save money when new jails are built.  For example, where a 500-bed jail in Florida cost $32 million to build, the same facility in Tennessee would cost taxpayers $58 million under the current square footage requirements. Local counties could save as much as 30 percent on new facilities while still meeting minimum standards set by the ACA. I am pleased our state senate has adopted this bill.”

A great deal more detail, especially with regard to the legislation’s affect on Greene County can be found in the Greeneville Sun.

This new state prison is so large that officials are calling it four prisons for the price of one, and that price tag is steep. The facility cost $158 million to build.   “This is a very exciting day for the state of Tennessee. It’s a great day for the Department of Correction,” said Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner George Little.   The prison held an opening day ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday afternoon to mark the official start to a new era in Morgan County correction …

The complex has more than 2400 beds separated into 4 pods — maximum, medium, and minimum security, as well as a medical pod.  Though its new beds, toilets, walls, and even basketball courts put the facility at the top of the list of Tennessee prisons, it’s what the complex is doing for non-prisoners that makes it more special to the community.  “This is really a bright spot in terms of employment. The net increase is on the order of 250 to 300 jobs,” Commissioner Little said.

Allowing nonviolent inmates approved for parole to sit behind bars for days or weeks, racking up costs the state could cut in half if they immediately were placed in halfway houses also is counterproductive, Commissioner George Little said.  “We can figure out how to better manage those populations,” he said. “What I think it opens up is a discussion of who we are locking up, how long they are being locked up and do we have the right people in our prisons and jails.”  With the state’s budget crisis forcing $42 million in cuts to a corrections program that will receive almost no federal stimulus money, Mr. Little is championing an increased emphasis on community corrections programs such as halfway houses …

Rep. McCormick is a member of the House’s State and Local Government Committee, which has the bill. He said he doesn’t anticipate the legislation surviving if Gov. Bredesen doesn’t approve money for it.  “If it’s not already included in the governor’s budget, there is a very, very, very little chance it will pass,” Rep. McCormick said. “I’d have to vote against it. It’s not that it’s not a good cause, but there are a lot of good causes out there and, in this environment, it would be unfair to put that one at the top.”

There is a great deal more discussion at the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

“This needs to be done very, very carefully,” says Gene Voegtlin, legislative counsel for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. He sees the need for savings, he says, “but at what cost?”   Probation and parole violators account for up to two-thirds of prison admissions each year in some states. The cost of locking them up for technical violations, such as drug-test failures or missed meetings with officers, is straining local budgets.   “Although some violators must be returned to prison to protect public safety, states are looking at how they can get people out of prison without risking public safety,” says Alison Lawrence of the National Conference of State Legislatures …Among the policy changes:

• Kansas is allowing probation and parole officers to decide whether those who violate early release conditions for non-violent offenses should go back to prison.  “The response to every violation doesn’t have to be a revocation of parole or probation,” Kansas Department of Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz says. The initiative has helped cut probation revocations by more than 20%.

• Tennessee Department of Corrections Commissioner George Little wants accelerated releases for probation and parole violators who are sent back to prison and complete drug-abuse and other counseling programs. The program would cut their prison time from about 17 months to three months.

• Arizona lawmakers approved a 2008 measure that lets thousands of probationers end their terms early. The program accelerates the “good time” they can apply against their sentences, reducing the chances they could be sent to prison for condition violations.

The new 2,400-unit, $155 million Morgan County Correctional Complex will open this summer as the aging Brushy Mountain State Prison is closed.   The move would have added a net of 1,432 inmate beds to the state prison system. But state Correction Commissioner George Little said those plans were scaled back after Gov. Phil Bredesen called on departments to cut spending. The revised plan will leave 612 units empty until needed …

Nashville-based prison operator Corrections Corporation of America has also temporarily suspended construction work on a new 2,000-bed prison started in Hartsville until it figures out how soon it could fill the beds, The Tennessean reported … “A lot of states are taking the approach that until they understand what their long-term revenues will be, and what assistance they would be realizing from the federal stimulus package, they’re delaying decisions on contracts for additional space from companies like CCA,” said Tony Grande, CCA chief development officer …

[The DOC] says all the room will eventually be needed at the Morgan County complex, but for now the department believes the 600 beds can be left empty by keeping some people on parole or probation out of prison.  The move is intended to eliminate the need to hire more staff at a time when other state employees face being furloughed or laid off.

The Providence Community Corrections staff on West Main Street has contracted with the county for more than 12 years to collect fees from offenders as part of their probation.  They also collected $1.3 million in fees and court costs during the past two years in their contract with Smyrna General Sessions Court.   Circuit Court Clerk Eloise Gaither said the funds collected pay her office operations with Rutherford County government receiving the majority of the fines and arrest fees.   Providence turned over $199,544 in January.   County Finance Director Lisa Nolen said Gaither turned over $2.5 million in excess fees to the county from 2006 to 2008.

Sean Hollis, Providence’s director of operations in Murfreesboro, said his office collects fines from about 3,000 offenders on probation without charge to the county. Providence operates on the $45 per month offenders pay for probation fees.   Providence collected about 55 percent of the $11.8 million in fines and costs owed to the clerk’s office, Hollis said.   By comparison, news reports showed Davidson County relies on the clerk’s office to collect the fees, the director said. Their collection rate is only about 16 percent.

County Mayor Ernest Burgess said Providence was doing a reasonably good job on behalf of the county.   “It’s a specialized kind of approach,” Burgess said, adding Providence offers classes and services along with the collections.

There is a great deal of detailed operational information at the Murfreesboro Post.

While reporting a 16 percent increase in fourth-quarter net income on Tuesday, the Nashville-based prison operator said it has temporarily suspended construction work until it figures out how soon it could fill those 2,040 beds planned for Trousdale …

CCA began building the Trousdale prison at an industrial park in Hartsville last summer with completion set for early next year. The company had bet that various clients, including the state of Tennessee, federal agencies or other states, would use the additional space to house prisoners.  But in a conference call with analysts Tuesday, CCA executives said budget difficulties faced by many states makes it difficult to forecast how states will proceed.“A lot of states are taking the approach that until they understand what their long-term revenues will be, and what assistance they would be realizing from the federal stimulus package, they’re delaying decisions on contracts for additional space from companies like CCA,” said Tony Grande, chief development officer. The $143 million Hartsville prison was expected to employ 350 people …

For the fourth quarter, CCA earned $40.5 million, or 32 cents a share, vs. $34.9 million, or 28 cents a share, last year. Revenues rose 8.8 percent to $414 million.   Occupancy declined to 92.9 percent from 98 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, primarily as the result of a 9.9 percent increase in the average number of available beds. For all of 2008, CCA earned $150.9 million, or $1.20 a share, vs. $133.4 million, or $1.06 a share, for all of 2007. Revenue rose 9.8 percent to $1.6 billion, the company said.

“It was difficult to get anybody to talk about rehabilitation ten years ago,” said Tim Dempsey, chief executive officer of Chattanooga Endeavors Inc., a nonprofit organization that helps former prisoners find employment. “The notion of re-entry (of prisoners into the community) wasn’t really anything anybody was talking about or thinking about in the least” …

“People are finding out that you can’t build your way out,” said David Delbridge, executive director of Project Return, a nonprofit organization founded in 1979 to aid prisoner re-entry in Nashville.  “If you continue with the mandatory minimum sentences, you’re going to end up with more people in prisons, and you have more prison beds to build.”

On top of the financial pressures involved, studies in recent years provide more evidence that rehabilitative programs work, said Jim Cosby, assistant commissioner of Tennessee’s division of rehabilitative services.”Fifteen years ago, we did not have a lot of studies or data on what we can do to increase an offender’s success,” Cosby said.

There is more detail in the full piece at WSMV-TV.

TDOC commissioner said that the department could lay off 600-800 people and make major cuts to prison programs such as inmate classes.  Victim advocates believe programs such as one that teaches inmates how crimes affect victims are vital. Advocates said they’re essential because 95-98 percent of those incarcerated will be released and programming has a proven effect on recidivism.

TDOC Commissioner George Little said the department will have to be creative and look at the kinds of inmates they house in order to weather this budget crisis.  He said the department may have to look at alternatives such as drug court or rehab programs and rely more on volunteers while maintaining the same level of public safety.

The department plans for an 8 percent cut or $50 million, affecting programs such as education, work crews and rehabilitation programs.  The budget discussion occurs while state lawmakers are looking to toughen sentencing laws. Little said if this does happen the prison system will need more resources to deal with more inmates as well as the healthcare of older inmates.

The Tennessee Corrections Institute has given the Greene County officials until Dec. 3 to approve a long-term plan for dealing with overcrowding at the Greene County Detenction Center, or jail.  Sheriff Steve Burns and Commissioner Jerry Weems appeared before the TCI in October, and were told to have a plan ready by Dec. 3 or face the detention center’s decertification … Burns said the Greene County Detention Center has been “written up” by state officials not only because of basic overcrowding, but because the existing jail does not have enough space to “segregate” violent criminals or gang members from the general inmate population, something the plans for a new jail would seek to address.

A similar workshop meeting was held Nov. 3, but could reach no agreement. County Mayor Alan Broyles said then that the purpose of Monday’s meeting was to come up with a plan that could be presented as a resolution at the Nov. 17 monthly meeting of the Greene County Commission. However, a non-binding “poll” showed that only a handful of commissioners were ready at this time to support some phase of the “new jail, new site” plan, and most were not ready to vote for any plan.

Sheriff Steve Burns has repeatedly said he believes that, if a large enough new detention center, or jail, is built, it can be paid for, or mostly paid for, from additional revenue that will come from housing larger numbers of state and federal inmates. The county currently receives $38 per inmate per day for housing prisoners who are in the custody of the Tennessee Department of Corrections, and $48 per inmate per day for inmates in federal custody, mostly awaiting trial or other action in U.S. District Court either in Greeneville or elsewhere.  However, county budget director David Lawing has said he does not see how the inmate fees can generate more than 65 to 70 percent of the cost of a detention center.  On Monday, Lawing said he thinks inmate funding could fall roughly $1.2 million short if the county commission decides to build the entire $64 million project …

Last week, Jeff Hedden, the U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Tennessee, said that the federal government values its relationship with Greene County, and said he thinks that the federal government will need short-term jail space for large numbers of prisoners awaiting court action for the forseeable future, though no guarantees are possible  …

Since the straw poll did not lead to a resolution for the full commission, at the end of Monday’s workshop, Broyles said he would “try to travel to Nashville Dec. 3 to plead the case for Greene County, explain to them that we have worked hard,” and ask for continued certification while that work continues …

Monday’s workshop began when architect Dave Wright presented commissioners with a  … booklet … that he said included 23 possible configurations of the various elements of plans for the proposed new $64 million jail on a new site first presented last week.  The plan that Wright presented did not include land costs, or staffing costs … Wright said the entire project, if built, would result in 286,400 square feet of new construction, and a capacity of 596 beds.  The option that included “the very least you could get by with,” Wright said, called for a one 192-bed cell block, a “core”section with space for utilities, an intake/booking area as large as the cell block, and a small jail administration area …

Wright said expansion and renovation of the present detention center adding 250 new beds and a 64-bed dormitory, would cost about $22 million. It would include administrative and kitchen upgrades, improvements to the “sally port” where vehicles containing prisoners enter the jail, and would require relocating the existing sheriff’s offices elsewhere, at additional cost …

Sheriff Burns pointed out that the current county budget depends on housing an average of 54 federal inmates and a similar number of state inmates. He pointed out that the county has avoided property tax increases for several years by using revenue from housing inmates to balance the general fund. This year, those two sources generate about $2 million, Burns said. “It takes 77 state and 54.25 federal beds to balance the budget” in the current fiscal year, Burns said.

A great deal for information is available in the Greeneville Sun.