TENNESSEE LAWMAKERS AREN'T ADEQUATELY FUNDING STATE PRISON SYSTEM

Tough sentencing policies aimed at getting criminals off the streets and
keeping them behind bars have begun to turn the tide against crime in
Tennessee and across the nation. But many local jails are overcrowded and
outdated. And, with the inmate population continuing to swell, the
situation is becoming a critical concern.

A state report finds that things are going to get a lot worse. Tennessee's
inmate population will increase 30 percent in the next decade, according to
the "Future Felon Population" report released by the Tennessee Department
of Correction. Such an increase would leave nearly 5,000 inmates without
beds unless new prisons are built or present facilities expanded.

According to the report, there was a 2.1 percent rise in the number of
state prisoners during the past fiscal year - from 22,634 to 23,120. That's
actually lower than the previous year, which saw a 2.3 percent increase.
But the most recent slide in the crime rate isn't expected to continue. For
the next decade, the report predicts, the average annual increase is
projected to be 2.6 percent.

There are 21,591 men and 1,471 women incarcerated in state prisons. But
that number doesn't count the hundreds more serving time in local jails. A
healthy number of inmates at the Sullivan County Jail - historically about
a quarter of those incarcerated - are state prisoners being held here
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.

In Virginia, 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 have had to set aside millions in local
tax dollars for jail construction and renovations.

The report from Tennessee's corrections department ought to be a wake-up
call of sorts for the state's lawmakers. In recent years, it's grown
increasingly clear they are more interested in passing popular laws that
promise to lock criminals away than in adequately funding the state prison
system.

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 laws
even as they skimp on state prisons to house offenders.

Local jails have become the dumping grounds for state criminals. With the
level of overcrowding Tennessee's jails and prisons are currently
experiencing, a new series of federal lawsuits may well be in the offing.

Doing nothing is not an option. Tennessee has the seventh highest murder
rate in the nation, the fifth highest involving the use of fire-arms; the
ninth highest incidence of rape; and a robbery rate fourth highest. The
state is eighth in rate of aggravated assaults and seventh in the nation in
motor vehicle thefts.

If state lawmakers don't soon find the money to address Tennessee's growing
prison population, the only option is to release murderers, rapists and
thieves on an accelerated basis to free up space for the next batch.

The Future Felon Population report makes clear that tinkering around the
edges cannot, for long, withstand the adverse trends that are at work in
our prisons, let alone reverse them. This is an issue that cannot wait for
the recession to end. It needs attention from the governor and the
legislature. And it needs it now.