Some Tennessee legislators are irate following revelations that state parole officials claimed they were supervising felons who later turned out to be dead. Two of those parole officers were not arrested after they were caught falsifying some of those dead felons’ files.
The Tennessean reports officials with the Tennessee Department of Correction have been grilled by state lawmakers over the matter. Representative Barrett Rich told an assistant commissioner with the department that falsifying state documents is a crime, and should be referred to the district attorney general in the relevant county.
Tennessee lawmakers now have an audit accusing the agency of supervising dead felons, not effectively supervising live ones, and not double-checking parole officers’ work through supervisory reviews. The audit says parole officers claimed to be supervising at least 82 felons who were actually dead.
A legislative subcommittee looking into the matter is giving the Department of Correction a year to fix the problems before auditors return to check on their progress.
