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Article by Paula Gomes, Tennessee Conservative News –
Earlier this week, members of the Tennessee General Assembly heard from an autonomous state review board that has found that the majority of cases they looked into – 69 percent – had problems.
Following the 2022 kidnapping and murder of Eliza Fletcher in Memphis, state lawmakers created the Inmate Disciplinary Oversight Board (IDOB) to independently review sentence-credit decisions which can lead to inmates spending less time in prison.
By earning sentence credits, incarcerated Tennesseans can reduce the time they ultimately serve. Disciplinary violations can also lead to the removal of credits.
When the IDOB reviewed these decisions last year, credits in only 31 percent of cases were found to have been accurately awarded or removed, according to the board’s vice chairman Mike Dunn who spoke to senators on Monday.
So far, the IDOB has reviewed over 35,000 of the most severe incidents in the state’s 14 prisons, removing almost 2,000 years of good credit from offenders and restoring about 120 years.
The board, formed in 2023, was created in part to help prevent another case like Fletcher’s whose murderer was released 5 years early from a 24-year sentence for good behavior.
Board members say they need more cooperation from the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) as changes to the sentence-credit records of inmates must be made by TDOC staff.
In addition, the board can only see information about what happens inside of the state’s prisons by looking at the Tennessee Offender Management Information System (TOMIS) and which Dunn stated could be incorrectly reported.
TDOC is rolling out a new version of TOMIS this month but the IDOB executive director has been denied the opportunity to be trained on how to use the new system even though Tennessee law requires that TDOC officials and staff cooperate “at all times” with the board so that they may perform the duties they have been assigned.
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About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
