The Tennessee General Assembly passed legislation this past session that can be found in Public Chapter No. 1057 of 2016 that is commonly referred to as “The Juvenile Justice Realignment Act.” The stated purpose of the newly-created task force is to “study new approaches to the administration of juvenile justice, which may include the creation of a department of juvenile justice, the mission of which would be the treatment and rehabilitation of the state’s juvenile offenders.”
The Juvenile Justice Realignment Task Force is comprised of two (2) state senators, two (2) state representatives, five (5) public members appointed by the speaker of the state senate, and five (5) public members appointed by the speaker of the house. The following individuals or their desginees will serve as ex-officio members: DCS commissioner, F&A commissioner, MH&SAS commissioner, AOC administrative director, comptroller, TCCY executive director, and the TCJFCJ president.
As it presently stands, the following persons comprise the appointed members of the task force:
- Sen. Mark Norris
- Sen. Doug Overbey
- Rep. Karen Camper
- Rep. Mike Sparks
- Judge Dan Michael, Shelby County Juvenile Court
- Dr. Mark Lipsey, Peabody Research Institute of Vanderbilt University
- Dean Rivkin, Esq., University of Tennessee College of Law
- Darci Hoffman, TN Alliance for Children & Families Executive Director
- Jason Crews, Middle TN Juvenile Detention & Wayne Halfway House Executive Director
- Barry Fain, Jefferson County Juvenile Court
- Sutton Mora-Hayes, Community Foundation of Greater Memphis CFO
- Leslie Collum, Rutherford County ADA
- Keeda Haynes, Nashville Public Defenders Office APD
- Robert Hill, Shelby County Trustee’s Office Executive Director
Barry Fain of the Jefferson County Juvenile Court was appointed as a member on August 31st by House Speaker Beth Harwell, after his name was placed into nomination with her by Rep. Andrew Farmer and Rep. Jeremy Faison, with both representatives citing his 26+ year career working with the court on juvenile delinquency matters and experience managing secure adult and juvenile offender facilities in four different states in both the public and private sectors, along with Jefferson County’s unique position as a rural county in dealing with multiple delinquent offenses regularly generated from one of DCS’s youth development centers.
TJCSA members that would like to contact Barry with advice or input to attempt to inject into the task force conversation may email him. The task force is scheduled to begin meeting on September 12, 2016 at 1:00pm (CT), 2:00pm (ET), at Legislative Plaza in Nashville and should be streamed live from the General Assembly’s website.
Additional meetings are currently scheduled for 10/10/16, 11/3/16, and 12/1/16 and, similarly, should be live streamed for public viewing.