Tough on Crime and Mental Health Measures Planned for the Upcoming Special Session to Improve Public Safety
By Senator Page Walley
On Tuesday, August 8, 2023, Governor Bill Lee officially called our General Assembly to Capitol Hill for a special session on public safety and mental health which is set to begin on Monday, August 21, 2023. While many would have preferred to wait until the regular session, I will take the opportunity of this special session to focus on cracking down on crime, improving mental health reporting, and securing the safety of our citizens.
I am planning to sponsor two bills for the special session to address crimes with firearms and mental health patients.
To help local law enforcement agencies better protect public safety, I am proposing legislation to improve communication with mental health institutions. The measure will clarify how local law enforcement agencies and local courts are to be informed when a patient who lives in their community is involuntarily committed or released from a psychiatric institution.
Currently, the way the law is written, mental health institutions only alert law enforcement about involuntary commitments in the jurisdiction of the institution. However, if the patient lives in a different county than the location of the mental health facility, then law enforcement in the patient’s county is uninformed. My legislation aims to fix that issue.
Another measure I am proposing would implement a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for using a firearm in the commission of a crime. This would mirror federal law and ensure offenders prosecuted in state court for using a gun in a crime cannot negotiate their sentence down to less than five years.
Unlike federal law, under current Tennessee law, there is no mandatory minimum sentence for committing a crime with a firearm. This discrepancy creates a loophole for violent criminals to avoid a longer sentence. This legislation would close that loophole and ensure these offenders are behind bars for at least five years.
Infringing upon the rights of law-abiding citizens will not stop criminals willing to die to take the lives of innocent people. I am committed to upholding the Constitutional rights of our law-abiding citizens while increasing funding and resources for our existing mental health system and giving law enforcement more tools to combat criminals terrorizing our communities.
I will be communicating with you about proposals and developments in the upcoming special session. Please also reach out to me at sen.page.walley@capitol.tn.gov or (615) 741-2368 to share any thoughts and opinions you may have.
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