TENNESSEE LAWMAKERS PUT LOCAL JAILS IN A BIND

Many local jails are increasingly overcrowded and seriously, even
dangerously, outdated. And, with the inmate population continuing to swell,
the situation is becoming critical.

A report two years ago by the Tennessee Department of Correction estimated
the state's inmate population will increase a staggering 30 percent in the
next decade.

According to the Future Felon Population report, such an increase would
leave nearly 5,000 inmates without beds unless new prisons are built or
present facilities are expanded.

According to the latest TDC figures, there were, as of this month, 19,154
men and women in state prisons. But that doesn't count the hundreds more
state inmates serving their time in local jails.

A significant proportion of inmates at most local jails - historically a
quarter of those incarcerated - are actually state prisoners being held
locally because the state has no room for them. State law says those
prisoners are supposed to be sent to state-run facilities within two weeks
of their sentencing, but Tennessee's penny-pinching lawmakers haven't
exactly been keen on paying the freight for the laws they pass. As a
consequence, many area jails, of which Hawkins County is a prime example,
are bursting at the seams.

The Hawkins County Commission's building committee voted earlier this month
to authorize architect Tony Moore to compile a cost and feasibility study
on an expansion of the current jail, as well as the possibility of building
a whole new "justice center" at the site of a former department store.

The committee's action comes in response to a federal lawsuit filed by a
current inmate and a former inmate against the county and Sheriff Warren
Rimer in Greeneville federal court alleging that the overcrowded and
unsanitary conditions in the jail constitute "cruel and unusual punishment."

Sheriff Rimer has told the committee he believes the jail, which has a
capacity for 67 inmates, should be increased to at least 200. In a recent
meeting, Rimer noted that there were presently 80 inmates housed in the
jail. On Oct. 31 of this year, the sheriff told the committee, a record 107
felons were crammed into the facility. He went on to predict that, bad as
the crowding is now, conditions will get worse. We've "barely reached the
tip of the iceberg," is how Rimer characterized it. The sheriff says more
arrests, particularly related to an epidemic of illegal meth labs in the
area, have made more cell space an imperative. At the same time, with
Tennessee prisons also near capacity, it's now the norm for state prisoners
sentenced to as much as three years to serve their full terms in local
jails, putting an additional strain on county lockups.

Given the state's historic unwillingness to keep ahead of the curve in its
own prison system, local jails like the one in Hawkins will continue to be
an escape hatch for the legislature's failure to act responsibly.

In Virginia, by contrast, the state covers between 25 to 50 percent of
local jail construction costs depending on how large an area the jail
serves. That kind of financial support would be of immense help to
taxpayers in communities across Tennessee who've repeatedly had to divert
millions in local tax dollars for jail construction and renovation that
could - and should - have been spent on other priorities.

Like schools, roads or other aspects of government, the incarceration of
criminals in the state's prisons and local jails needs adequate funding.

It is fundamentally unfair and shortsighted for lawmakers to pass tougher
sentencing laws even as they skimp on state prisons to house offenders.

Doing nothing is not an option. Tennessee has historically had some of the
highest levels of violent crime in the nation and is currently above
average - 19th among the 50 states - in its rate of incarceration.

The combination of those two trends - a high crime rate and a high
incarceration rate - translates into a growing prison population without
enough cells to accommodate the new arrivals. The alternative is to release
convicts on an accelerated basis to free up space for the next batch -
hardly a wise or safe solution.

Funding jails and prisons adequately is the price society pays to keep
itself safe from hardened criminals. It is a price that must be paid and an
issue that must be addressed. Localities like Hawkins County have carried,
and continue to carry, an unfair proportion of this burden. It's time state
lawmakers shouldered their fair share of this responsibility.