Sunday, October 13, 2019

New jail population study
In Tennessee, where the prison and jail population has quadrupled in the last 40 years, the state's incarceration rate now stands 10% higher than the national average. A major driver of the increase is longer sentences which rose by 11% in the last five years. The findings are part of a study conducted by the nonprofit Community Resources for Justice on behalf of Gov. Bill Lee. Officials from Community Resources for Justice, say part of what's driving the numbers as well as state incarceration costs now totaling $1.06 billion annually are not people convicted of violent crimes against others. Rather, it's people sentenced for offenses like property crimes, which accounts for 33% of those jailed for felony crimes. Those entering jail or prison for violating conditions of parole or probation, accounted for 39% of prison admissions last year. While felony rates of prison incarceration overall dropped in Middle and West Tennessee in the last ten years, arrests in East Tennessee grew by 11%. And the rate of female admissions climbed 12% in the past ten years. Now the governor wants task force members to recommend educational training and technical job training, as well as outline how to address mental health and substance abuse problems while providing offenders' families and communities with tools to ease re-entry to the community.


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Thursday, April 29, 2021

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