2010 Tennessee Code
Title 40 - Criminal Procedure
Chapter 35 - Criminal Sentencing Reform Act of 1989
Part 3 - Sentences
40-35-314 - Confinement in local jail or workhouse Eligibility Jurisdiction of sentencing court Transfer for violation of jail rules.

40-35-314. Confinement in local jail or workhouse Eligibility Jurisdiction of sentencing court Transfer for violation of jail rules.

(a)  If confinement is directed, the court shall designate the place of confinement as a local jail or workhouse if required pursuant to § 40-35-104(b) or, if the sentence is eight (8) years or less and combined with periodic or split confinement not to exceed one (1) year, the court shall designate the place of confinement as a local jail or workhouse. If confinement in a local jail or workhouse is not mandated by § 40-35-104(b), § 40-35-306 or § 40-35-307, all convicted felons sentenced after November 1, 1989, to continuous confinement for a period of one (1) year or more shall be sentenced to the department of correction. After November 1, 1989, if a court sentences or has sentenced a defendant to a local jail or workhouse when the court was not authorized to do so by this chapter, it shall be deemed that the sentence was a sentence to the department, and the commissioner of correction shall have the authority to take the defendant into the custody of the department.

(b)  (1)  When imposing the sentence to the local jail or workhouse, the defendant is eligible for release classification status as provided in this chapter. However, the court may specify an earlier percentage of eligibility for all programs except parole. This percentage shall be expressed in one (1) of the following numeric percentages: zero percent (0%), ten percent (10%), twenty percent (20%), thirty percent (30%), forty percent (40%) or fifty percent (50%); provided, that the percentage shall be no higher than the release eligibility percentage under § 40-35-501.

     (2)  In the event the judgment does not specify a percentage as provided in subdivision (b)(1), the defendant shall be eligible for the programs, except parole, six (6) months prior to release eligibility date under § 40-35-501.

(c)  The court shall retain full jurisdiction over the defendant during the term of the sentence and may reduce or modify the sentence or may place the defendant on probation supervision where otherwise eligible. Following the first application, applications to reduce or to alter the manner of the service of the sentence may be made at no less than two (2) month intervals.

(d)  If a defendant serving a felony sentence violates any condition or rule of the local jail or workhouse, the court shall have full authority to sentence the defendant to continuous confinement in the department for a period not to exceed the remainder of the full sentence originally imposed.

(e)  If a defendant serving a felony sentence in a local jail or workhouse develops medical problems that the local jail or workhouse is not equipped to treat, the court shall have full authority to transfer the defendant to the department. If transfer is ordered under this subsection (e), the court shall retain full jurisdiction over the defendant to reduce or modify the sentence.

(f)  The provisions of subsection (b) also apply to defendants sentenced to the department during the time the defendants are being housed in a local jail or workhouse awaiting transfer to the department as provided in § 40-35-212(d).

[Acts 1989, ch. 591, § 6; 1991, ch. 374, § 3.]