Chattanooga Republican says amendment will target Shelby County, fill up jails and hurt counties.
Photo Credit: John Partipilo
By Sam Stockard [Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –
Senate Judiciary Chairman Todd Gardenhire blasted a proposed amendment to the Tennessee Constitution regarding the state’s bail law Tuesday, saying it will pack county jails and put local governments in a financial bind.
Senators passed the measure 6-3 but not before the Chattanooga Republican dropped the hammer. The resolution would amend the state Constitution by expanding the list of crimes in which judges have discretion to set bail. Under current law, judges have the authority to decline bail only for capital murder.
Gardenhire, who was ill early in the session, prefaced his comments by challenging House leaders who might question whether he is “soft on crime” and noted he was criticized last year. House Speaker Cameron Sexton is sponsoring the House version of the bill and has been outspoken about the need to put constraints on Shelby County and Memphis.
The bill is designed to target Shelby County, Gardenhire said, but he noted he’s worried about “unintended consequences,” especially for rural counties that might have to raise taxes to expand or build new jails.
“My concern is what judge running for re-election is not going to put somebody away for 100% of the time?” Gardenhire said.
Sarcastically, he noted a group of lawmakers had the “wisdom” in a 2023 special session on public safety to divert $50 million from a prison construction fund to nonprofit groups working on mental health. It costs about $600 million to build a state prison.
During debate, Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, the bill’s sponsor, barely answered questions about jail and prison crowding by saying he hopes judges will rarely use the discretion they’re given to deny bail, thus tamping down costs.
Yet the measure would enable judges to deny bail on 24 new offenses, mainly violent ones in which 100% of sentences must be served, and another 16 offenses in which 85% of the sentence is mandatory.
“There’s some real expenses the state could probably have to pick up, and I don’t think anybody has the guts to do it,” Gardenhire said.
The bail industry, which is lobbying against the measure, contends Shelby County would wind up with a 320-jail bed shortage and Hamilton County would be 1,249 beds short if this measure is placed in the Tennessee Constitution.
The resolution would have to pass a constitutional majority in this General Assembly and a two-thirds vote in the 114th General Assembly before being placed on the next ballot involving a gubernatorial race, where it must receive a majority vote of those participating in the governor’s election.
Johnson argued that when the state Constitution was ratified, capital offenses included more than first-degree murder.
“Since then, it has denied judges discretion to deny bail for the worst offenses,” Johnson said, including repeat offenders.
The bail industry, though, contends the state doesn’t have enough information to determine whether expanding the list of offenses will work.
Jeff Clayton, executive director of the American Bail Coalition, told lawmakers Tennessee is an “ancient rule state,” using the bail system that has been in place for 809 years.
“Preserving the presumption of innocence is important,” Clayton said.
Likewise, Democratic Sen. London Lamar told the committee “it’s dangerous to mess with the Constitution” and noted lawmakers probably will have to repair their error.
“The system is working right now,” the Memphis Democrat said. “Judges can set extreme limits on bail.”
Lamar said 37% of the Shelby County jail population has bail amounts of more than $500,000, making it difficult for people to get out of jail while awaiting court dates.
Josh Spickler, executive director of Just City Memphis, told the Lookout that 612 people were being held Tuesday in the Shelby County jail without bail.
“When it comes to the scourge of violent crime and repeat offenders, bail is not the problem, and amending the state Constitution is not the solution,” Spickler said in a statement.
However, House Speaker Sexton, who is driving the amendment, recently said some people “don’t want to admit there’s crime happening” in the Memphis area.
Based on TBI figures, he told reporters if Memphis is removed from the state’s crime figures for 2022 and 2023, murders, rapes, aggravated assaults, robberies and thefts are down. But in Memphis alone during that time frame, murders are up 50%, rapes 5% and aggravated assaults 3% while robberies are down 8% and thefts are down 10%.
“We have to do a better job of getting the judicial branch in Shelby County-Memphis on board with what the other counties are doing and what the other DAs are doing. It shows what we’re doing is working,” Sexton said. “It shows the prosecution and what’s happening in Memphis with the judges is not working, and that’s what we’re fighting right now.”
Sexton did not provide overall crime figures for the state.
***Note from The Tennessee Conservative: this article has been edited for writing style and length per The Tennessee Lookout’s republishing guidelines.
About the Author: Sam Stockard is a veteran Tennessee reporter and editor, having written for the Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro, where he served as lead editor when the paper won an award for being the state’s best Sunday newspaper two years in a row. He has led the Capitol Hill bureau for The Daily Memphian. His awards include Best Single Editorial from the Tennessee Press Association. Follow Stockard on Twitter @StockardSam
6 Responses
And you wonder why cops burn out.
When you don’t have the money to build more jails to house violent criminals then there’s always vigilante justice for these thugs who get released on low-bail or no-bail.
Thanks TCN for this article.
I didn’t realize Jack Johnson was this stupid.
Putting moral oversight in the hands of Judges is almost comical.
Something like this has to be hard outlined and targeted to societys most violent preditors.
Bail is a Constitutional Right. Tread carefully.
Dimmercrap low life gravitates to and runs insolvent big cities and city gubmints are unwilling to deal with criminals properly because they’re their voter base. The people they vote into state gubmint are trash. They’re why we got a RINO gubner too. Cities are KILLING whole states, ie. IL, working on TN.
Never thought I would agree with Gardenhire on anything I watched the entire committee yesterday evening live. purely out of boredom. He likes to act like a tyrant in his committee hearing room where making a spiel about his rules. I noticed the liberal activist ignored that the back row is reserved for people with signs now as he stated as they sat in the front row on camera ha-ha and he said nothing to them as he could not Know your rights just like when my first amendment rights were violated in his committee for peacefully and lawfully redressing my government according to the rule of law and policy of the building. Anyhow The Old Southern anti-second amendment Democrat RINO got it right on that h resolution to amend the constitution for bail reform and made his argument very articulately and charming like the well-seasoned politician he is … it passed on party lines ultimately will move forward to the Ballots because Republicans are so ignorant of their rights and the constitution all they know is we need this save us government they never realize anything that can be used for good can be used for bad and against you arbitrarily. this is why we are where we are today the low information nanny state supporters of the TNGOP help us help us government government is good my guy is great all the rest are bad but my guy is good he is not government LOL I am sure Gardenhire will oppose a resolution to amend article 1 section 26 when it comes around to committee if it hasn’t already I am done follow the scum and bills anymore its a lost cause in Tennessee and lobby groups work for the RINO’s and the Grassroots are all stooges God Bless !!! 🙂