Blended sentencing bill heads to governor’s desk
“This is a way to save many of these young people who are making these awful, awful decisions,” State Sen. Brent Taylor (in a file photo) said Thursday. (George Walker IV/AP)
The Tennessee Senate passed a blended sentencing bill on Thursday, April 25, that can mandate a youth serve a sentence as both a minor and adult if they violate conditions after they complete their juvenile sentence.
The House passed the bill Tuesday, and it now heads to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for a signature.
If Lee signs it, which he is expected to do, the bill will apply to cases filed after Jan. 1, 2025.
The bill allows a juvenile court to give a blended sentence to a minor age 14 or older for an offense that would equate to a serious felony if it were committed by an adult.
Under the bill, juvenile court can keep the minor under its jurisdiction until the teen’s 19th birthday, after which the court is authorized to impose an additional sentence to be served on or before their 24th birthday if they violate conditions.
Before the bill passed, juveniles served their sentences until their 19th birthday and then their record was wiped clean, in a sense. Unchanged is the ability for a district attorney to request a transfer to adult court for a juvenile charged with a serious felony. But the new bill provides an alternative to either being released at age 19 or being tried as an adult.
Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Eads), one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a post on X that blended sentencing will serve as a “powerful deterrent to juveniles from participating in criminal activity.”
Juvenile and criminal courts have concurrent jurisdiction over blended sentencing cases.
If a youth is accused of being delinquent for the first time for offenses equivalent to first-degree murder or second-degree murder or for a second time for other offenses such as rape, aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping and carjacking, the youth will be sent to criminal court for a jury trial then juvenile court for sentencing.
A district attorney can also ask the court to classify a first-time offender as a serious youthful offender eligible for blended sentencing.
Between the time the minor completes their juvenile sentence and their 24th birthday, he or she will serve an adult prison sentence or probation if they violate three of their conditions.
These violations include: committing another delinquent act; engaging in other conduct that poses a safety risk; missing conditions of supervision; failing to attend school regularly with passing grades; failing to graduate from high school or obtain a GED; or failing to maintain employment if they have finished high school.
If they do not make three violations, they will not be required to serve an adult sentence.
“This is a way to save many of these young people who are making these awful, awful decisions,” Taylor said during Thursday’s Senate session.
Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) questioned what she called the “three-strike” rule in the bill.
“A juvenile could be 14, you know, just angry at the world committing these offenses,” Akbari said. “By the time they’re 19, they’re a totally different person, but because they got three strikes at 19, they have to have the mandatory additional sentence.”
“We’re not trying to lock up juveniles. We’re trying to give juveniles a path so they can avoid adult prison. And that’s what this bill is about.”
Brent Taylor
Taylor argued that the bill is not meant to be punitive.
“I know I’ve heard the three strikes, which has, you know, that’s a buzzword that’s designed to confuse and to make it sound worse than it is,” Taylor said. “We’re not trying to lock up juveniles. We’re trying to give juveniles a path so they can avoid adult prison. And that’s what this bill is about.”
Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) questioned additions to the bill since it came out of judiciary committee, including the fact that a minor would undergo a jury trial in adult court. He expressed concerns about violation of privacy protections for youths.
“We haven’t had testimony on this legislation,” Yarbro said. “We haven’t heard from a criminal court judge, from a juvenile court judge, from district attorneys, public defenders, nobody.”
He said the bill should have been referred back to the committee.
“But instead we’re doing something irresponsible and we’re doing it without even having the bare minimum of committee hearing and vetting that we do for legislation of this magnitude,” Yarbro said.
The bill, sponsored in the Senate by Taylor and in the House by Mark White (R-Memphis), was first proposed in January 2023 but was rolled to this session.
Other versions of blended sentencing bills, including one proposed by House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Taylor last year, have continued to fail in the legislature over the past several years.
Topics
Tennessee Senate Tennessee House blended sentencingJulia Baker
A lifelong Memphian, Julia Baker graduated from the University of Memphis in 2021. Other publications and organizations she has written for include Chalkbeat, Memphis Flyer, Memphis Parent magazine and Memphis magazine.
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