Nashville Tennessean
Tennessee s criminal justice system increasingly relies on life sentences, a new analysis shows, a phenomenon straining the state s prisons and budget.
The population of so-called lifers in Tennessee prisons has jumped by 87% since 1970, according to the report released Wednesday by Washington D.C. nonprofit The Sentencing Project. An expert on Tennessee s sentencing laws said explosive growth of that group is just the beginning of an impending trend.
More than half of the people serving life sentences in Tennessee prisons are Black, the report found, which the authors say disproportionately harms minority communities as a whole.
Swelling prison rosters have done little to reduce crime, the report found, using language echoing Gov. Bill Lee s Criminal Justice Investment Task Force. Lee s task force released its own report in 2019, showing the draconian sentencing that disproportionately affects Black residents hadn t made Tennessee any safer.