State Rep. Andrew Farmer, a Sevierville attorney, was caught off guard in Circuit Court a week ago when, inexplicably, the judge started moving offenders off Community Corrections into state probation.
"It just blew my mind," said Farmer, a Sevierville Republican who chairs the House Civil Justice Committee and serves on the Criminal Justice Committee.
The way Judge Rex Henry Ogle explained it, the Legislature had cut funding for Community Corrections, leaving no option but to shift non-probatable people out of the nearly 40-year-old program.
But Farmer, also a member of the House Criminal Justice Committee, knew better. The General Assembly had not passed any bills to dismantle the intensive probation program, instead telling the Department of Correction to keep it intact.
(READ MORE: Community Corrections helps Tennessee clients change their lives)
What he didn't realize was that Gov. Bill Lee's administration set up a request for grant proposals that made it nearly impossible for Community Corrections programs to function, using the contract process to phase it out and push offenders into state probation.
"That's not a good thing ... because Community Corrections, they've worked hard, they help folks in a lot of ways," Farmer said.
The program has been doing the job for decades in urban areas as well.
One Nashville probationer told the Tennessee Lookout recently the program saved his life. And officials with Davidson County Community Corrections believe the forced phase-out will wind up putting more people into prison because they won't get the attention from state probation officers they receive from Community Corrections officers.
What irked Farmer, though, was that he didn't know contracts were wrapping up at the end of June, and several Community Corrections organizations across the state opted not to renew because of hardships placed on them by the state's new requirements.
State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, chairman of the legislature's Fiscal Review Committee, is promising to hold hearings on the administration's request for grant proposals and subsequent phase-out.
State Rep. Chris Todd is irritated, too, that the Lee administration gave the impression that the program would be maintained but then appears to have gone the opposite direction. The Jackson Republican says the Government Operations Committee should delve into the situation because judges and attorneys tell him the program works.
Specifically, judges say the change "will not end well," Todd said. "You're taking your eyes off these folks and gonna put them in a situation where they're gonna fail."
For nearly 40 years, judges have been sentencing people to Community Corrections when they are ineligible for normal probation, a last-gasp effort to keep them out of prison. If they violate Community Corrections guidelines, they will serve time, but proponents of the program say they receive more intensive supervision than they would from under-staffed state probation.
"If these folks all of a sudden go over to state oversight, they're not going to (have) as positive outcome. There's no way it can be," says Todd, a Jackson Republican. "They cannot handle the volume by just flipping that switch."
District Attorney General Jody Pickens in Madison County, meanwhile, says the 26th Judicial District is "heartbroken" over the move away from Community Corrections, which does the best job of supervising offenders of any entity in the district.
"It's bad for all involved," Pickens said.
The Department of Correction, however, contends it didn't eliminate Community Corrections programs.
The request for grant proposals was released in January with a May 6 deadline to apply for a contract. The state awarded 14 contracts, most of them to Community Corrections programs, but two major ones in Madison County and Knox County declined to submit a proposal. A third one was disqualified for not filing on time.
Within those awards, seven are for day reporting centers, six for outpatient treatment programs and one for a residential treatment program, and they include supervision, according to Department of Correction spokeswoman Dorinda Carter.
"There is clear evidence that increased treatment opportunities and risk-based supervision provide better outcomes for Tennesseans, from a public safety, health, family and community perspective," Carter said in answer to questions. "Tennessee continues to experience reductions in recidivism through the use of best practices and increased treatment opportunities."
Nevertheless, Davidson County Community Corrections officials say their program is being phased out. And three of the largest programs in the state opted not to participate.
Gov. Lee has said he would be willing to work with the Legislature to resolve the matter. But by the time the Legislature goes back into session, most contracts will be six months old. It is unclear whether Gardenhire will be able to schedule hearings this fall.
Read more at TennesseeLookoout.com.