Chairman Doggett and Respective Members of the Subcommittee:
Thank you for your time and consideration of HB 784. My name is Casey Witte, and I conduct research on community supervision among other criminal justice issues for the R Street Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization. Our mission is to engage in research and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government in a wide variety of policy areas. Given that HB 784 stands to reduce wasteful spending and more efficiently provide for public safety, it is of particular interest to us.
To start with the facts, Tennessee is one of only eight states to have nearly doubled their average probation sentence from 2000 to 2018, extending the average length of probation from 18 to 33 months.