NASHVILLE, Tenn. — With early voting underway, a nonpartisan think tank has published a research report laying out what Constitutional Amendment 1 would do to the right to bail in Tennessee, and it concludes the change would reach further than similar measures in most other states.
Tennessee has promised nearly every accused person a chance at bail since 1796. Today, judges can hold someone without bail before trial only in capital cases with especially strong evidence.
Amendment 1, which lawmakers advanced through Senate Joint Resolution 919 and Senate Joint Resolution 25, would widen that list. Judges could keep a defendant jailed before trial on capital charges, terrorism, grave torture, second-degree murder, aggravated rape or the aggravated rape of a child, along with any offense whose sentence carries an 85% minimum service requirement. Judges would have to put their reasons on the record each time they grant or refuse bail in those cases.
ThinkTennessee counts at least 60 and as many as 144 additional offenses that would fall under the new exceptions. Voters in four other states, Colorado, Texas, Delaware and Alabama, have approved comparable changes lately, and Indiana has one on its ballot. Most of those versions let a judge refuse bail only after weighing whether any set of release terms could keep the community safe. Tennessee would follow Alabama in letting the charge by itself decide.
The report also looks at local jails. As of June, Tennessee jails averaged 82.6% of capacity, and Humphreys, Macon and Morgan counties were above 150%. People awaiting trial made up 54.5% of local inmates this year, and in 47 counties they were at least half. Crime has dropped since 2021, with overall rates down 19.6% and violent crime down 23.8% through 2025, though the state still ranks near the bottom nationally.
Research on pretrial detention is mixed, the group said. Holding defendants cuts missed court dates and new arrests while cases are open, but it may raise later rearrests and hurt job prospects. ThinkTennessee president Erin Hafkenschiel said the report is meant to help voters weigh the trade-offs.
Passing an amendment takes two things: a yes side that beats the no side, and a yes total topping 50% of the combined vote for every candidate for governor. The amendments appear on the ballot right after the candidates for governor. Election Day is Nov. 3.
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