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A commission that's been reviewing Tennessee's sentencing laws will release its final recommendations Thursday morning.
The group has drawn scrutiny because working documents have shown it might recommendlongersentences for some crimes.
The Governor's Task Force on Sentencing and Recidivism is weighing more prison time for three crimes: aggravated burglary, drug trafficking and domestic violence. But the Vera Institute of Justice, an outside consultant that's been advising the task force, told the groupearlier this month that, taken together, those ideas wouldincrease the size of Tennessee's prison population.
Gov. Bill Haslam says that was not his goal.
"You know, certainly, we didn't start this saying, 'Oh, how can we have more people in prisons?'"
But Haslam says not to look at any of the group's ideas in isolation. Even if some criminals wind up spending more time behind bars, the overall planshouldcut the number of prisoners. It'll also provide ex-convicts with more help after their release.
The task force will hand its recommendations over to another group led by state Safety Commissioner Bill Gibbons.
That panel will then decide what to do with them.
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