State Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) says he will propose a change to bail requirements next year that would remove economic considerations in bail court decisions.

“That shouldn’t even be a consideration as to what their financial status is,” he said on the WKNO-TV program “Behind The Headlines.”

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“The purpose of bail is really an insurance policy to make sure that that defendant shows up for court,” Taylor said. “It needs to be a big enough bite financially that they are not willing to give up that money or the family is not willing to give up that money and they’ll make sure the defendant shows up to court.”

State law says financial status should be a factor in setting bail, along with a presumption of innocence.

Taylor said some judicial commissioners who run the recently enacted bail court are interpreting the requirement to mean that bail must be affordable, including how much money someone arrested has on them when they are arrested.

Taylor also expects any attempt at a “red flag” law to take away guns of those with mental health issues or those deemed to be a danger to themselves or others will likely be voted down in an August special session of the Tennessee Legislature.

“My guess is very little will come out of the session,” he said on the podcast version of the show. “There doesn’t seem to be the will in the Legislature to tackle any type of red flag bill, which is what the governor wants us to do.”

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is proposing an expansion of court orders used in domestic violence cases to keep guns away from others. He has denied the proposal’s terminology as a red flag law, which gun control advocates have pushed for at the state and federal levels.

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“Just renaming it simply does not solve the issue,” Taylor said of Lee’s distinction.

“I think most of the people in the legislature, they’re looking to figure out how can we remove people who are a danger to themselves or someone else,” he said. “It’s really separating them from their guns rather than separating their guns from them.”

Taylor also faulted gun-free zones for causing more citizens to leave their guns in cars where they are then stolen.

“So when people leave the house in the morning, they’re not thinking through all the stops they have to do during the day,” he said. “And when they pull up to a business that has a sign saying ‘no firearms allowed,’ they’re forced to leave their gun in the car.”

Taylor believes thieves are targeting cars parked near gun-free zones for that reason.

In the same “Behind the Headlines” episode, Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo said he wants the legislature to fund a new, larger state juvenile-detention center for children accused of violent offenses that would have up to 400 beds.

That compares to the 120-bed Wilder Youth Development Center in Somerville that at times has housed more than 270 children.

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“Part of the chain or the pipeline or the broken system needs to be fixed,” said Palazzolo, who’s on the board of the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission. “And we’re looking to help in the state legislature lobbying for that because as much as a lot of us want to see reform, you have different versions of it — long-term, intermediate and short-term.”

“And the short-term fixes need to be to take juvenile and young adult offenders out of the criminal pipeline,” he said. “Maybe they can be rehabilitated. But at the end of the day, they don’t need to be breaking into cars or houses, kidnapping or doing assaults in our greater region.”

Critics of such an approach have argued detention for juveniles should be a last resort. 

They also argue that the Wilder Center removes Memphis children from familial connections that could help in rehabilitation efforts.

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Shelby County Juvenile Court is about to open a detention center for those in its custody as the children await hearings.

The Youth Justice and Education Center has been built within the former Shelby Training Center on Getwell Road. The renovated facility was most recently owned by CoreCivic, a private corrections company.

It will include hearing rooms and classrooms as well as detention facilities.