Corrections budget: Tennessee DOC requests salary increases, higher clinical and hepatitis C funding as vacancies persist

The Tennessee Department of Corrections presented its operating and contract cost increases to the Senate State and Local Government Committee on March 1, asking the panel to move its budget to the finance committee. The committee voted to send the budget forward.

The department’s leadership told the committee the agency is focused on recruiting and retention and has taken steps to raise pay and invest in equipment intended to reduce contraband and improve safety. Committee members pressed officials for details on vacancy counts, county jail backlogs and contract oversight.

Why it matters: The budget includes multi-million-dollar increases that affect the department’s ability to staff facilities, provide medical care, and fund contracted treatment and prison beds. Committee approval advances those funding requests to the finance committee and, eventually, the full legislature for consideration.

What committee members heard

- Leadership and staff: The commissioner (identified in testimony as the Department’s commissioner) introduced his budget team, including Landon Ketterlin, deputy director of budget; Valerie Murtha, assistant commissioner for finance; Richard Muckle, chief of staff; Gail Fenkell, assistant commissioner for rehabilitative services; and Heather Stanford, assistant commissioner for human resources and staff development.

- Staff vacancies and pay: The department reported a statewide correctional officer (CO) vacancy rate of 26.6%, down roughly 2 percentage points from the prior year. The department said turnover for COs was 31.8% for the last year. Testimony said the department has raised the starting salary for correctional officers to $51,204 and described a tiered increase that would bring pay to about $60,000 after 18 months; two figures were used in testimony ($60,720 and $60,270) and the committee discussion acknowledged the variance in numbers provided.

- Population and intake: The agency said its in-custody population is about 20,000, roughly 1,000 more than the prior year. Intake from county jails increased by roughly 13–15%, an increase described in testimony as about 5,000 additional intakes year-over-year. County jail population figures cited in testimony were approximately 5,700 inmates in county jails, of which roughly 2,400 were locally sentenced.

- Major cost increases in the requested budget: testimony and budget slides identified several specific increases that together accounted for roughly $91.5 million in requested cost increases: a $36.9 million increase to fund correctional officer pay increases; a $14.4 million increase for a new clinical services contract (reduced from the department’s original request through negotiating and accounting for offline beds); a $2.2 million increase for the community treatment collaborative (substance use treatment for certain probation and parole technical violators); and a $21.7 million increase for hepatitis C treatment due to rising numbers of inmates requiring that therapy.

- Contracts and oversight: Committee members asked about private-prison and food-service contract inflators, and department representatives said contract monitors are assigned to private facilities and that the department publicly posts fines and findings when contract terms are not met. The department cited working partnerships with private providers to manage state population levels and said incidents and contraband have declined in the past two years.

- County jails and daily rates: Committee members asked how many inmates are in county jails and how many are locally sentenced. Testimony cited roughly 5,700 county jail inmates with about 2,400 locally sentenced; the county per-diem payment figure cited in testimony was $41 per day, with an additional $3–$6 per inmate per day available if the county provides certain special educational incentives.

Committee action and questions

Committee members asked about Trousdale Turner vacancy rates (testimony cited a 33.7% vacancy rate at that facility and offered to provide the raw vacancy number on follow-up), the status of the department’s electronic health record rollout (witnesses said pilot locations were scheduled to go live by March), and ongoing challenges with contraband including cell phones, drugs, and drone deliveries. Members urged continued oversight of contracts and consideration of federal action that could affect cell-phone blocking in facilities.

Vote and next steps

The committee voted to pass the Department of Corrections budget and forward it to the finance committee; the clerk announced the vote as 9 ayes. The budget will be considered in finance and may be further amended as the session progresses.

Ending: Committee members encouraged site visits to correctional facilities to better understand operations and programming. The department promised to provide additional requested details on vacancy counts and program outcome data for reentry programs mentioned in testimony.