Committee approves Family Advisory Board bill after emotional testimony from families

Senate sponsors introduced legislation to create the Tennessee Family Advisory Board (TFAB), a body intended to give families of incarcerated people a formal mechanism to report safety and communications concerns to policymakers and to inform reentry policy.

Senator Rose (carrying the measure for Senator Hatcher) described TFAB as a vehicle to "restore trust and basic safety for incarcerated people and their families," to hold public hearings and to issue regular reports to the General Assembly. He cited high in-prison death rates and broad family concern about communication and safety.

Tim Leeper, executive director of Kylan's Light, testified at length about families' experiences. He said offenders and families face extortion and gang violence, claimed some families "have paid over $50,000," described problems obtaining protective custody and alleged that private prisons have "almost doubled the death rates" compared with TDOC facilities. Leeper also cited a statistic presented as "Since January 2020, every 2.19, an offender dies in the TDOC prison." He urged passage to give families a structured way to report concerns.

Committee members thanked Leeper and asked questions about protective custody and proposals such as jamming phones in prisons; Leeper said phone jamming is a "double-edged sword" because recordings have exposed abuses but phones can also facilitate illicit activity. Senator Sutherland said he would cosponsor the bill. The clerk recorded eight ayes and one absent; the measure was recommended to the State and Local Committee.