The state is giving the company of former Correction Commissioner Derrick Schofield a $2 million contract increase for probation services, bumping GEO Reentry Services up to $15.5 million through August 2025.
Schofield resigned as commissioner under former Gov. Bill Haslam in 2016 amid questions about Tennessee’s prison system, including the undercounting of violent incidents between guards and prisoners that led to changes in how those encounters are documented.
Haslam defended Schofield at the time, but Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey made no secret back then he felt new leadership was needed to run state prisons.
The Joint Fiscal Review Committee approved the contract increase Wednesday, raising the price tag from $13.7 million to add staff at day reporting centers for probationers in Chattanooga, Jackson and Columbia.
Correction Commissioner Frank Strada sent Fiscal Review Committee co-chairman Dan Howell a letter saying the department requested and received an “evidence-based programming contract inflator” to pay for the positions. He noted the staff found no allegations of fraudulent activity by the Florida-based vendor.
Cashing in: The Tennessee Department of Correction is bumping up a contract to the company of a former Corrections commissioner who left the department under a cloud, for a total of $15.5 million over the next two years.
The move comes as a new state law is set to take effect July 1 guaranteeing Tennessee’s Community Corrections program will remain in place, presenting a bit of competition to GEO Services.
It appears the Department of Correction would like to see the 38-year-old Community Corrections program fade into history, based on the way it used the contracting process in 2022 to nearly eliminate it.
Judges across the state, however, rebelled and continued to sentence some of their toughest offenders — those one step from prison — to the intensive supervision program.
Several lawmakers are working to make sure the Department of Correction doesn’t make another end-run around them to eliminate Community Corrections.
The measure sponsored by Rep. Andrew Farmer, R-Sevierville, and Sen. Ed Jackson, R-Jackson, keeps the program intact by placing it under state law. The measure also contains a provision stating if a judge orders supervision by Community Corrections, the state Department of Correction will not penalize the organization.
While Schofield left Tennessee under a cloud seven years ago, the prison system has hardly been a model of efficiency since then.
The murder rate at the state’s privately-run prisons was found to be twice as high as that at state-run prisons in 2019. Two years before that a state Comptroller’s report gave CoreCivic a terrible review, pointing out it was failing to hire enough guards to keep an eye on inmates, which led to terrible problems.
No doubt, running prisons and dealing with probationers are tough jobs. But they’re also lucrative, and the state continues to reward GEO and Schofield while trying to undercut Community Corrections.
Counting blue cars
Tennessee is continuing to contract with consultants for work related to COVID-19 disruptions, winding down programs even after President Joe Biden declared the pandemic done.
The Joint Fiscal Review Committee voted this week to extend a $16.18 million contract with Mississippi-based Horne LLP, one of three deals the company inked with the state to help Tennessee follow rules for spending federal money and handling a rent relief program. The deal is likely to be extended another two years into 2026, according to a state official.
The Tennessee Housing Development Agency was using that contract until the fall of 2021 when the Finance and Administration Department notified THDA it needed to ink its own deal, which led to a four-year $44.3 million contract. The application deadline for rent relief is long gone, but Horne will continue to work on phasing out the program.
Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, R-East Ridge. (Photo: John Partipilo)
The state also signed an initial contract with Horne during the pandemic for $25.5 million for consulting and program administration, which was considered an emergency procurement and didn’t go before the committee.
Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, chair of the House finance committee, raised questions Wednesday about the need for an audit of the funds, especially to make sure spending matches local government projects statewide. And Sen. Heidi Campbell challenged Horne’s performance on rent relief, saying the state returned money to the federal government even as people were having trouble getting money to pay their rent during the pandemic.
Eugene Neubert, deputy commissioner for Finance and Administration, assured lawmakers, even though no audit is being done, agencies are required to monitor the money under federal guidance. He added that the Governor’s Office is “keeping a thumb” on how projects are proceeding to make sure they’re on track.
That must have made the committee breathe a sigh of relief because they didn’t order an audit.
Nevertheless, Campbell questioned Horne’s handling of the rent relief program, saying, “When a corporation or entity we are dealing with is not being a good actor in general, I find it a little bit disconcerting.”
She echoed Hazlewood’s concerns about the need for an audit of Horne contracts, but the committee took no action other than to approve the extension.
THDA received nearly $300 million for rent relief through the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan.
To boost the program, agency spokeswoman Rebecca Anderson said in early June that THDA put a “comprehensive communications strategy” in place in January 2021 to create awareness of the COVID-10 rent relief program. It included earned media (whatever that is), targeted email campaigns and social media that continued through 2022. In March 2022, the agency started a statewide paid advertising campaign with print and spot radio ads, according to Anderson.
The agency refused to respond, though, when asked how much rent relief money it might have sent back to the federal government. A public records request made two weeks ago remains unanswered.
Meanwhile, the state continues to use federal pandemic funds to raise the ante for Horne to make sure Tennessee is spending federal money correctly. The Finance and Administration Department assures the Lookout the guidelines were “complex” for spending and reporting, especially for some $438 million sent to local governments. The consultant was “invaluable and very necessary to do the job proficiently and effectively,” spokeswoman Lola Potter says, and the state couldn’t use the same processes it does for typical federal funds. The feds send Tennessee several big chunks of money for the state budget, making it one of the biggest welfare states in the country.
On behalf of the band and myself, I’d like to thank the feds for enriching consultants across America.
They ain’t butter
… Because they ain’t on a roll.
Tennessee’s Republican-controlled Legislature chalked up another L this week when a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump put their new law blocking gender affirming care on hold. Have they won anything in the courts this year?
House Majority Leader William Lamberth responded on Twitter by calling it “a sad day in Tennessee when, in place of protecting innocent children, our courts normalize a dangerous ideology that promotes the abuse and chemical castration of healthy young people.”
The Portland Republican noted he is “grateful for the wisdom of the General Assembly” in passing the law.
It is a sad day in Tennessee when, in place of protecting innocent children, our courts normalize a dangerous ideology that promotes the abuse and chemical castration of healthy young people.
I am grateful for the wisdom of the General Assembly in recognizing and passing… https://t.co/nGEBKKiJSX
— William Lamberth (@WilliamLamberth) June 29, 2023
It must be noted that “wisdom” and “General Assembly” usually don’t go in the same sentence unless the word “lacks” is situated between them. But we’ll give Lamberth a break since he is talking about himself and Republican colleagues who control the House. It was also his bill.
The judge ruled that the law violated the First and 14th Amendments, and he admonished the Legislature for passing it.
Joining a barrage from the bowels of tweetdom, Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville, pointed out Section 1 of the 14th Amendment “contains no language” making it unconstitutional to protect children. It’s unclear where he went to law school, but these days it doesn’t really matter, since phony resumes are all the rage.
Zachary tweeted he’s glad to see the attorney general appealing the case and “willing to take this to the Supreme Court if necessary.” And we all know the arguments made by AG’s office usually fall back on the argument that the plaintiffs don’t have standing to sue. The Legislature gives it little choice.
Democrats argued during floor debate the measure was unconstitutional. But, predictably, Republicans passed it along party lines.
Armchair lawyer? Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Predictably, Gov. Bill Lee said the same thing this week that he said a month ago when asked about the barrage of lawsuits against the state, that legal challenges are par for the course in passing laws, which is what you say when you keep getting your legal hat handed to you.
Attorneys near and far are thanking the Legislature. It takes a lot of work to make sure this stuff won’t pass muster, and it gives the state ample opportunity to spend money on legal fees for the winning side.
But back on the antics surrounding transgenderism: At the sake of sounding about as repetitive as the judges ruling against the Legislature’s new laws, there is little doubt that parents nationwide wake up every day wondering how they can persuade their children to seek a sex change. It’s every parent’s dream, or maybe they’re just trying to save their child’s life.
But enough of these “activist” judges.
A soft landing
Former Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, who stepped down from her post, is serving as a fellow for the Walton Family Foundation and FutureEd at Georgetown University and McCourt School of Public Policy.
Besides using educational bureaucrateze that few humans could decipher, Schwinn is known for guiding Gov. Lee’s private school voucher program to fruition – with the help of a weird ruling by the Tennessee Supreme Court – along with reshaping the K-12 funding formula for Tennessee and setting up teacher recruitment programs to stop a complete mutiny amid the governor’s privatization and charter efforts.
Some semblance of sanity
Shockingly, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against North Carolina’s ruling Republicans this week by rejecting their efforts to give state legislatures free rein over federal election laws.
States’ chief justices group argues against independent state legislatures “theory”
The Tennessee Lookout reported on this several times over the last few months, while nobody else gave a whit.
Critics of the effort say it would have “undermined voting rights and upended our elections.”
“The independent state legislature theory is now dead,” said Wendy Weiser, vice president of the Democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law. “The court said that state courts can now freely enforce constitutional rights and guarantees as they have for hundreds of years.”
But can they do something about gerrymandering? Tennessee’s political makeup is roughly 60% Republican and 40% Democrat, yet the state has eight Republicans and one Democrat in Congress. Something doesn’t compute.
“Man you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe.”
And one more thing
In Metro mayoral candidate Freddie O’Connell’s new football-ish commercial, could McNally spox A.C. Kleinheider really block former Dem leader Mary Mancini? Or maybe they’re on the same team.
Creative Commons Republished from tennesseelookout.com
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