STATE NEEDS MORE PRISONS

Local Jail Could Be Filled To Capacity In Just 10 Years

The state of Tennessee needs to suck it up and build more prisons to house
state inmates. Local communities such as Montgomery County shouldn't
continue to be stuck with the financial burden of looking after inmates who
actually should be in state lockup.

Before leaving office, then-Gov. Don Sundquist recommended that the state
build a prison of 1,400 to 1,600 beds in Weakley County and add 700-900
beds to a prison in Bledsoe County.

Even that won't be enough if current procedures and trends continue.

Correction officials estimate the state will need 7,097 more beds by the
end of 2011. That's at least partly due to the decline in the percentage of
felons receiving parole, from 34.9 percent in 1995 to 24.7 percent as of
last August.

If the citizens of this state want to keep inmates incarcerated for a
longer period of time, then we all must pay for it rather than trying to
pass the financial obligation down to counties such as ours.

For each state inmate serving time in the Montgomery County jail, the cost
is $53 daily. Unfortunately, however, the state has capped reimbursements
to the local jails at $35 daily. And with the growing state inmate
population, county officials fear that the situation only is going to get
worse.

The county jail is undergoing an expansion that will put capacity at 936
beds. County commissioners approved the expansion under the assumption that
it would take care of local needs through 2025. The county has been under a
federal magistrate's order to limit the number of prisoners in the current
jail.

If state trends continue, with Tennessee dumping inmates on the counties,
even with the expansion, the local jail could be filled to capacity in just
10 years.

Along with providing roads and bridges and helping to fund the schools,
among the basic obligations of the state is maintaining prisons. Tennessee
must stop passing the buck to the counties. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen
needs to affirm Sundquist's recommendation for the prison expansions, and
the Legislature must follow through with the funding -- it may not be
enough, but it would be a start.