§ 40-36-302 — Community-based options and services

(a) Community corrections funds can be used to develop or expand the range of community punishments and services at the local level. Community-based program options may include, but are not limited to, the following: (1) Noncustodial community corrections options that involve close supervision but that do not involve housing of the offender in a jail, workhouse or community facility. Examples include, but are not limited to: (A) Community service supervision; (B) Victim restitution supervision and victim-offender mediation; (C) Alcohol or drug outpatient treatment; (D) House arrest; and (E) Psychiatric counseling; (2) (A) Short-term community residential treatment options that involve close supervision in a residential setting. Examples include, but are not limited to: (i) Emergency shelters; (ii) Detoxification centers; (iii) Community residential restitution centers for nonviolent offenders and probation and parole violators; (iv) Community residential treatment centers for special needs offenders and probation and parole violators; and (v) Inpatient drug or alcohol treatment; (B) The residential options are not intended to create overcrowding in the local jail, but rather to develop additional small community-based facilities whose focus is on treatment rather than detention; (3) Enrolling community corrections participants in residential in-house drug and alcohol treatment for detoxification and counseling. Enrollments shall be based upon an objective assessment that a participant is alcohol or drug dependent and requires detoxification. Awards for detoxification services shall only be made for inpatient services; and (4) Individualized services that evaluate and treat the special needs of the population served under this chapter. Services to the court to assist in the evaluation and screening of eligible candidates may include the purchase of psychological, medical, educational or vocational, drug or alcohol urine screening and client specific plan diagnostic evaluations. Other services that may be purchased on an individualized basis may include job training, alcohol or drug counseling, individual or family counseling, adult education programming that includes preparation and testing toward obtaining a high school equivalency credential approved by the state board of education, or transportation subsidies. These services are intended to fill gaps in the local community correctional system and to enable the nonviolent offender to be treated near the offender's home. (b) The options set out in subsection (a) may be used in conjunction with a period of shock incarceration or in conjunction with a term of probation and/or a term of split confinement or periodic confinement as provided in chapter 35 of this title. (c) Community corrections funds may also be used to acquire, renovate and operate community facilities established to provide the options and services set forth in subsection (a). (d) Counties may provide or contract with qualified proprietary, nonprofit or governmental entities for the provision of services under this chapter. (e) Any options or services established under this chapter shall serve offenders from the entire judicial district in which the county is located. (f) Any community-based program set out in subsection (a) that provides housing for alternatively sentenced criminal offenders shall notify the chief law enforcement officer of the county and the chief law enforcement officer of the municipality in which the housing facilities exist of the identity, criminal record and location of the alternatively sentenced criminal offenders proposed to be located at the facilities. The notices shall be in compliance with the confidentiality provisions of title 33 and shall also meet the privacy requirements of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, ( 42 U.S.C. § 1320d et seq.)

Legislative History

Amended by 2023 Tenn. Acts, ch. 114,s 9, eff. 7/1/2023. Acts 1985 (1st Ex. Sess.), ch. 3, § 10; 1986, ch. 731, § 3; 2003 , ch. 287, § 1.