Tag Archives: overcrowding

Sunday Column: Overcrowding in Legislatorland

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A time-honored ritual for the lords and ladies of Legislatorland is welcoming various groups of common citizens to the state castle, um, Capitol for a Day On The Hill, wherein they are granted audiences with the elected nobility to present grievances, pay homage and raise awareness.
It can be quite a spectacle as the Day On The Hill (DOTH) folks mix with other, less-organized common citizens wearing frowns or smiles — and bumper sticker slogans affixed to their chests — supporting or opposing some proposed law of the land, generally bored schoolchildren getting a dose of civics education and the everyday inhabitants of Legislatorland, lobbyists trying to influence the elected nobility and staffers trying to serve them.
It can also be quite an annoyance if you’re trying to walk across the hall from one room to another as members of the peaceful multitude clog the plaza in numbers that would have fire marshals clearing the area, writing tickets and issuing citations anywhere else.
One lobbyist says he discourages DOTHs because of the risk that individuals in the DOTH crowd will say something off message to a legislator — “You idiot!” for example — and the increasing annoyance factor.

Back to the Future in Overcrowded TN Prisons?

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In Tennessee prisons, <a href="It's beginning to look a lot like the 1980s.
Back then, Tennessee was forced to overhaul its entire criminal justice system in the wake of civil rights lawsuits and federal intervention over abysmal conditions in prisons. And while Tennessee isn’t quite there yet, it has nearly 5,000 felons stuck in county jails because there aren’t enough prison beds. Some of those jails are being decertified for overcrowding, leaving them vulnerable to lawsuits.”>according to the Tennessean, it’s beginning to look a lot like the 1980s.
Back then, Tennessee was forced to overhaul its entire criminal justice system in the wake of civil rights lawsuits and federal intervention over abysmal conditions in prisons.
And while Tennessee isn’t quite there yet, it has nearly 5,000 felons stuck in county jails because there aren’t enough prison beds. Some of those jails are being decertified for overcrowding, leaving them vulnerable to lawsuits.
The Tennessee Department of Correction ran $20 million over budget last year, and Gov. Bill Haslam has kicked in an additional $48 million in the upcoming year to pay for the large number of state inmates left in county jails.
All the while, state lawmakers continue to file bills designed to put even more people in prison for longer and longer stays.
That disconnect could spell trouble.
Every 20 or 30 years, the state criminal justice system goes through a major change and needs a “fix-it,” said David Raybin, a Nashville criminal defense attorney who helped reform Tennessee’s criminal justice system in the 1980s.
“What’s happening now, you are having the beginnings of a necessity for a revision again,” he said. “The patient is now breaking out in a serious rash. You now need medical attention.”
And county taxpayers are paying for Band-Aids, spending millions on new jails to avoid decertification and civil rights lawsuits.