NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — The 108th Tennessee General Assembly will resume deliberations this week and the state’s prosecutors are weighing in with their recommendations for changes to the Tennessee criminal code.
Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference spokesman Guy Jones says prosecutors are recommending that individuals convicted of aggravated child neglect be required to serve more of the original sentence.
“We have a case of a two year old child up in Cookeville who weighs not a lot more than what a six month old should weigh and was a normal baby; and the proof is that the child was just neglected; and that is going to have an effect on that child that it will never recover.”
Jones says that, at the moment, individuals convicted of aggravated child neglect frequently serve as little as one-third of the original sentence.
Prosecutors will also push legislators to give them the option of combining trials involving sex abusers who commit offenses across county lines rather than separate trials in each county.