The Tennessee State Senate on Monday will consider an amendment to the Tennessee Constitution that prosecutors have called “the single most important” legislative effort to improve public safety in more than a decade.
Lawmakers are currently slated to consider Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 25 by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) on Monday, which would modify the Tennessee Constitution to allow judges to refuse bail to defendants accused of capital offenses, acts of terrorism, second degree murder, aggravated rape of a child, aggravated rape, grave torture, or any other crime for which they would be required to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence if convicted.
The Tennessee Constitution currently only allows judges to deny bail in first degree murder cases where the defendant could face the death penalty.
The amendment has the endorsement of The Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference (TNDAGC), and the conference’s Executive Director, Stephen Crump (pictured here), the former District Attorney for the 10th Judicial District prior to his appointment, said in the legislature last month that the amendment is the first time the conference made such an endorsement in recent memory.
“In the 11 years I’ve had the pleasure to serve as district attorney, but also in the time that I’ve been the executive director, our conference has never taken the step of promulgating a formal resolution in support of a piece of legislation,” said Crump.
Declaring, “Tennessee’s district attorneys believe this is the singular most important bill to public safety that we have evaluated over the last 11 years,” the executive director told senators that prosecutors, “the people who do this every day, and see it and argue about this every day, believe it is incredibly important.”
Crump then directed his remarks toward opponents of the bill who favor criminal justice reform.
“We are routinely number one, number two, or number three in terms of the most violent states in the union. For years, we’ve heard criminal justice reform advocates tell us that jails are for the people that we’re afraid of, and not angry at,” said Crump. “These are the people that we’re afraid of, and they should be incapacitated.”
The proposed amendment must be approved by the General Assembly in two legislative sessions before going before voters in a referendum, and last year’s successful effort was unveiled with the tacit support of law enforcement in Memphis and Shelby County, where House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) announced it alongside local law enforcement and political leaders in January 2024.
The comments by Crump and support from law enforcement likely raises the stakes of the upcoming vote, which will require a two-thirds majority to pass. The 2024 resolution received only 22 votes, just a handful more than required to meet the threshold in the legislative chamber.
Crump’s comments also came shortly before sources told The Tennessee Star that some senators who voted for the identical, 2024 resolution have now changed their mind, perhaps in response to lobbying pressure from the Tennessee bail bond industry.
Tennessee’s bail bond industry faced questions last year, when 23-year-old Bricen Rivers (pictured here, right) allegedly absconded from the terms of his bond, left Nashville, crossed state lines, then killed his ex-girlfriend, Lauren Johansen (pictured right).
The bail bonding company cited a miscommunication from the court, which apparently released Rivers without providing the company with a copy of the bond conditions that stated he was required to wear specific model of ankle monitoring device. After Rivers informed the company he was ordered to wear such a device, it apparently provided him with another model which was improperly programmed by the manufacturer.
Amid questions over the bonding practices that led to Rivers’ release, the family of his alleged victim blamed Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Cheryl Blackburn, who lowered the defendant’s bond days before Johansen was killed.
Other opponents to the constitutional amendment have argued it could lead to overcrowding in rural jails, though a recent analysis of how the amendment could be applied showed it could lead to an approximate addition of 2,300 inmates in county jails, while about 5,000 beds were available throughout the state as of December 2024.
Additionally, state reports reveal that jails most likely to experience overcrowding appear to be located in Tennessee’s largest cities, and not in rural parts of the Volunteer State.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Bail Bonds” by Daniel Schwen CC BY-SA 4.0.
I think the bail restrictions are well over due, I understand the over crowded jail problem but who really cares when restricting someones bail means saving someone else’s life.
Good move. However I question why there is any provision that permits a criminal from serving the full sentence. Seems like a slight of hand to make the public at large feel more confident in the justice system.
How about setting a failure rate for the judge? If 51% of the violent criminals you reduce bonds on recidivate within 5 years, you ger disbarred. If they commit another violent crime in 12 months, then you are disbarred and prosecuted as an accessory.
Also, it’s time to look at a number of Nashville judges who are applying racial litmus tests to sentencing and diversion programs. Ahem, Judge Bell.