Tennessee Lawmakers Want State To Release Money For Probation Program Amid Funding Cut

Community Corrections, which made a comeback after governor’s administration tried to ax the program in 2021, hits a shortfall.

Image: Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada is declining to release funds to support the Community Corrections program. Image Credit: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout

By Sam Stockard [Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –

Two Republican lawmakers are hitting a wall in negotiations with the Department of Correction to free up money for the revival of an intensive probation program coping with a 15% funding cut.

Sens. Richard Briggs of Knoxville and Ed Jackson of Jackson want the Department of Correction to release money from a $14 million fund balance but can’t get Correction Commissioner Frank Strada to budge.

“We pretty much met the end of the road,” Briggs said Wednesday, adding, “We really don’t know where else to turn.”

Briggs sent a letter to Strada in June detailing the impact of a $160,000 budget reduction on the Community Corrections program run by the East Tennessee Human Resource Agency. It was part of a statewide cutback for 13 agencies that ran Community Corrections, a program enacted through a 1985 law setting up intensive probation as a last-ditch effort to keep people out of prison.

Briggs, who serves on the agency’s board of directors, said the lack of funding is forcing the shutdown of a Hamblen County day reporting center just as it is about to fully function after the state forced Community Corrections programs to go out of business three years ago.

“Community Corrections organizations across the state are facing reduction in services and counties due to this budget reduction,” Briggs’ letter says. “This reduction is not in the best interest of the state and the offenders these programs serve.”

Briggs requested the department to release 10% of a $14 million “carry forward” fund balance for Community Corrections to enable 13 legacy programs to operate. He and Jackson talked to the governor’s office as well.

Strada is declining to release the money despite acknowledging the Correction Department maintains a “carry-forward budget” for Community Corrections that by law allows the state to reallocate unspent money for eligible programs.

“The Department is committed to responsible and transparent stewardship of these resources,” Strada said in a mid-June letter to Briggs. “While these funds remain dedicated to Community Corrections, their use must be aligned with budgetary guidelines, operational planning, and the broader strategic priorities of the state.”

Lawmakers staved off an attempt by Gov. Bill Lee’s administration to end the program in 2021. But the Department of Correction forced it out of existence the next year with bid specifications that Community Corrections couldn’t meet because of high costs and other difficult requirements, such as hiring counselors with master’s degrees. The move signaled an effort to steer probation services away from nonprofit agencies to the Department of Correction, despite criticism that it doesn’t have enough officers to serve those already incarcerated.

At the behest of judges, prosecutors and other officials, the Correction Department started to revive the program in 2024 and put out a new request for proposals this year that appeared to resurrect Community Corrections. 

The funding available didn’t match the bids that nonprofits made, which would take about $20 million, and programs are suffering already, forcing Jackson and Briggs to pressure the state to release part of the fund balance.

Gary Holiway, director of the East Tennessee Human Resource Agency, told lawmakers about the agency’s financial shortage at a Wednesday meeting, saying its state funding dipped to $914,000 this year from $1,078,000. The agency had to let go of one staff member and find other ways to cut expenses, according to Holiway.

“We still want to do the same thing that we’ve been doing,” he said.

Before the state forced new requirements on Community Corrections groups, East Tennessee Human Resource Agency served about 750 people in 19 counties at any one time with more than 20 employees. Its staff hasn’t returned to that strength.

Sen. Jackson, who has focused mainly on renewing Madison County Community Corrections in Jackson and other programs in West Tennessee, told the Lookout a Decatur County agency serving five counties will have to cut counselors and one or two day reporting centers to stay financially solvent.

Jackson said the quest for more state funding will continue when lawmakers return to Nashville in 2026, but programs in rural counties will continue to suffer.

“It’s just a tough situation,” Jackson said.

Simultaneously, an official with the Delta Human Resource Agency in Memphis said in last week’s hearing that federal funding cuts stemming from the federal Department of Government Efficiency are being felt statewide.

W.T. Bailey, finance director for Tipton County and Delta Human Resource Agency, told lawmakers the reductions are a “major concern” for county governments and agencies. State government officials are trying to get a handle on federal funding cuts, too, mainly those affecting TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program.

“We really don’t know which direction the federal government’s going to go,” Bailey said. “We are seeing some programs I believe are going to be taken away from us.”

Reductions could impact Human Resource Agencies across the state, Bailey said. Those groups offer assistance with everything from employment and education to nutrition and social services.