By Cheyenne Galloway
NASHVILLE, TN – The Tennessee House Criminal Justice Committee approved a stricter “three strikes” bill last week in the state of Tennessee, but a justice reform group charged the measure “isn’t good for anyone except people who hold stock in private prison companies.”
The proposed law includes roughly a 35 percent increase for the Tennessee Dept. of Corrections,, which currently averages $1.26 billion a year – the bill also calls for constructing a new prison within the following five years, requiring the allocation of $446 million for its construction, staffing and operation.
Matthew Charles, Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) Tennessee State Director, said in a statement, “Tennessee already has a three strikes law, and it isn’t stopping or reducing crime.”
“Passing a new three-strikes law that is even worse isn’t going to improve public safety. This bill is nothing more than tough on crime posturing on the taxpayer’s dime,” Charles said.
Charles added, “But in this case, those dimes add up to half a billion dollars in new prison construction. This bill isn’t good for anyone except people who hold stock in private prison companies.”
FAMM is an organization dedicated to a “more just and effective justice system for more than three decades opposing compulsory sentencing laws” and endorsing rehabilitation and humanity towards people in prison and those recently liberated.
