HB 34 - SB 221
FISCAL NOTE
Fiscal Review Committee
Tennessee General Assembly
February 6, 2025
Fiscal Analyst: Natalie Dusek | Email: natalie.dusek@capitol.tn.gov | Phone: 615-741-2564
HB 34 - SB 221
SUMMARY OF BILL: Authorizes a court to use juvenile court records, including the
disposition of a child and evidence adduced in a hearing, in pretrial reports used to set bonds.
Requires, in determining the amount of bail necessary to reasonably assure the appearance of a
defendant and the public’s safety, a magistrate to consider the defendant's prior juvenile record.
FISCAL IMPACT:
OTHER FISCAL IMPACT
Passage of the proposed legislation may result in an increase in local incarceration
expenditures; however, the precise timing and impact is dependent on multiple unknown
factors and cannot be determined with reasonable certainty.
Assumptions:
• Pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 37-1-133 and 37-1-153, juvenile court records, including
disposition and evidence, are only open for inspection and use by specifically authorized
parties under certain circumstances.
• The proposed legislation expands these circumstances to include their use in pretrial reports
used to set bonds, and requires the magistrate to consider the defendant’s juvenile record
when assessing the defendant’s risk of danger to the community.
• It is reasonably assumed that requiring a magistrate to consider a defendant’s prior juvenile
record will in some cases result in bail being set in excess of what it otherwise would have
been had the magistrate not had access to that information.
• It is further assumed that this will result in an increase in local incarceration expenditures
due to an increase in defendants not being able to make bail, and thus remaining in a local
jail while awaiting trial.
• Due to multiple unknown factors, such as the number of defendants with a problematic
juvenile record that will come before a magistrate in a bail hearing, how a magistrate may
weigh any given juvenile record in the context of other statutorily-required considerations,
how often and to what extent the consideration of juvenile records will directly result in a
higher bail amount, and whether or not such an increase was the determining factor in a
defendant not being able to meet bail, the precise extent and timing of any such increase
cannot be determined with reasonable certainty.
HB 34 - SB 221 2
CERTIFICATION:
The information contained herein is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.
Bojan Savic, Executive Director