Does TRICOR's authority to contract with Tennessee counties and cities for inmate 'work training programs' include traditional work release?

Plain-English summary

Attorney General Herbert Slatery III answered a request from TRICOR's CEO about the new authority Tennessee's General Assembly had given the program in 2020. Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-415, effective June 22, 2020, allowed TRICOR to "enter into contractual agreements with counties and cities to provide work training programs for prisoners incarcerated in county and city jails." The question was whether "work training programs" was broad enough to include traditional work release, where inmates leave the jail during approved hours to work at outside employment.

The opinion answered yes. The reasoning combined the plain meaning of "work training programs" (a broad, comprehensive phrase) with the statutory context: TRICOR's mission under § 41-22-403(2) covered manufacturing, business services, agricultural jobs, vocational training, and a catch-all in § 41-22-403(2)(G) for "other programs and services as deemed necessary by TRICOR to support an inmate's rehabilitation and reintegration efforts." The AG noted that the General Assembly had instructed TRICOR to operate "with the principles of free enterprise" and to be "as free as is possible to operate its facilities and to pursue its mission" (§ 41-22-406(a)(1)(A)). Reading "work training programs" narrowly to exclude work release would have stripped substance from the new authority, since work release is the obvious rehabilitative tool for county and city jail inmates.

The opinion also pointed to the structural fit. Tennessee already had a work release framework for county workhouses under §§ 41-2-127, 128, and 134(b). The 2020 amendment in § 41-22-415 specifically targeted "prisoners incarcerated in county and city jails," the very inmate population for whom work release was already an established option. Reading the new TRICOR authority to exclude work release would have left a strange gap.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2021. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Q: What is TRICOR?
A: Tennessee Rehabilitative Initiative in Correction. A program created by the TRICOR Inmate Labor Act of 1994 (Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 41-22-401 to -415) that puts inmates to work in manufacturing, business services, and agricultural jobs and provides vocational training. The TRICOR Board manages and operates the program for the State.

Q: What is work release?
A: A rehabilitative program that lets a prisoner committed to a county workhouse or similar confinement leave during approved working hours to work at outside employment and earn an income, typically used to offset confinement costs and to build job skills before release. Defined in Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-2-134(b).

Q: What did the 2020 statute add?
A: Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-415, effective June 22, 2020, gave TRICOR contractual authority to provide "work training programs" for inmates in county and city jails. Before that, TRICOR's reach was primarily into the state prison system. The 2020 addition extended the model down to local jails through cooperative contracts with sheriffs and municipalities.

Q: Why did the AG read "work training" so broadly?
A: Two reasons. First, the phrase itself is broad and the Tennessee Supreme Court's plain-meaning canon (Mills v. Fulmarque, Inc., 360 S.W.3d 362 (Tenn. 2012)) gave it its ordinary scope. Second, TRICOR's enabling statute repeatedly directed the program to operate freely and creatively in pursuit of inmate rehabilitation. A narrow reading would have undermined that legislative direction.

Q: Did the opinion address jurisdiction over which prisoners qualify?
A: Only by implication. Section 41-22-415 reached "prisoners incarcerated in county and city jails." The opinion did not parse what makes a particular inmate eligible (security classification, sentence length, conduct record); those criteria would be set by TRICOR, the contracting county or city, and any conditions in the relevant inmate's sentencing order or release plan.

Q: Was the AG concerned about TRICOR competing with private employers?
A: The opinion did not address it directly, but the General Assembly's "free enterprise" instruction (§ 41-22-406(a)(1)(A)) and the parallel statutory requirement that TRICOR "[d]evelop work opportunities that minimize the impact on free-world jobs" (§ 41-22-403(2)(C), referenced through the analysis of § 41-22-403(2)) signal that competitive impact is a TRICOR program design constraint, not a structural bar.

Background and statutory framework

The TRICOR Inmate Labor Act of 1994 codified what had been an informal prison-industries program in Tennessee into a statutory rehabilitation-and-jobs structure. The Act gave the TRICOR Board broad operational discretion and tied the program's mission explicitly to inmate rehabilitation and post-release reintegration. The Tennessee Court of Appeals affirmed that mission in Harris v. Tennessee Rehabilitative Initiative in Correction, 2014 WL 1778349 (Tenn. Ct. App. April 30, 2014).

The 2020 expansion in Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-415 was the first authorization for TRICOR to operate inside the county and municipal jail systems through contracts. Most county and city inmates are short-term, awaiting trial or serving short misdemeanor sentences, so the rehabilitative payoff of an immediate work-skills program is potentially high. The new statute let TRICOR bring its existing infrastructure (vocational programming, employer relationships, post-release placement) into local facilities through cooperative contracts.

The opinion's narrowness is worth noting. The AG addressed only the meaning of "work training programs," not the operational details (what happens with custody during a work release shift, who insures the inmate, what the indemnification looks like in the TRICOR-county contract, what happens if the inmate violates work-release conditions). Those issues live in other statutes and in the contracts themselves.

Citations and references

Statutes (as of 2021):
- Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 41-22-401 to -415 (TRICOR Inmate Labor Act of 1994)
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-402(3) (scope of TRICOR program: jobs, training, marketing)
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-403(2) (TRICOR statutory mission, including § 41-22-403(2)(G) catch-all)
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-404 (TRICOR Board)
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-406(a)(1)(A) (broad operational authority; free-enterprise principles)
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-408(e); § 41-22-414(a)(2) (operational autonomy)
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-415 (2020 county/city work training contract authority)
- Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 41-2-127 and 128 (county workhouse work release programs)
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-2-134(b) (definition of work release)

Cases:
- Harris v. Tennessee Rehabilitative Initiative in Correction, M2013-00501-COA-R3-CV, 2014 WL 1778349 (Tenn. Ct. App. April 30, 2014) (TRICOR mission)
- State v. Strode, 232 S.W.3d 1 (Tenn. 2007) (statutory construction)
- Mills v. Fulmarque, Inc., 360 S.W.3d 362 (Tenn. 2012) (natural and ordinary meaning of statutory language)
- State v. Norton, No. M2004-02791-CCA-R3-CD, 2005 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 1170 (Crim. App. Nov. 7, 2005) (work release distinct from probation)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.tn.gov/attorneygeneral/opinions.html
• Original PDF: https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/attorneygeneral/documents/ops/2021/op21-03.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort reproduction; the linked PDF is authoritative.

TRICOR Contracts with Counties and Cities for Work Training Programs

Question

Effective June 22, 2020, the TRICOR Inmate Labor Act of 1994 was amended to provide that "TRICOR may enter into contractual agreements with counties and cities to provide work training programs for prisoners incarcerated in county and city jails." Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-415. Does the phrase "work training programs" in § 41-22-415 include "work release programs"?

Opinion

Yes. The phrase "work training programs" in Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-415 includes "work release programs."

ANALYSIS

TRICOR was created by the TRICOR Inmate Labor Act of 1994, Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 41-22-401 to 41-22-415. "TRICOR" is the acronym for "the Tennessee rehabilitative initiative in correction," a program that provides jobs and training for inmates and that is managed and operated for the State by the TRICOR Board. Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-404.

The TRICOR inmate program provides:

(A) Manufacturing, business services or agricultural jobs for inmates, or any combination of those jobs;
(B) The training and skill development necessary for inmate employment in manufacturing, business services or agricultural jobs and in placement in its post-release program; and
(C) The marketing and sale of prison industry products and services.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-402(3).

"[T]he stated legislative mission for creating TRICOR work programs is to support inmate rehabilitation and reintegration post-release." Harris v. Tennessee Rehabilitative Initiative in Correction, M2013-00501-COA-R3-CV, 2014 WL 1778349, at *1 (Tenn. Ct. App. April 30, 2014) (citing Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-403). The General Assembly has expressly charged TRICOR, as part of its statutory mission, to:

(A) Work inmates in manufacturing, business services or agricultural jobs;
(B) Offset the costs of incarceration by generating revenue through the sale of products or business services;
(C) Develop work opportunities that minimize the impact on free-world jobs;
(D) Integrate work opportunities with education and vocational training;
(E) Develop good work habits and marketable skills;
(F) Develop and operate a post-release placement system; and
(G) Provide or create other programs and services as deemed necessary by TRICOR to support an inmate's rehabilitation and reintegration efforts[.]

Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-403(2).

The General Assembly has given the TRICOR Board "such powers as are necessary to effectively carry out" the mission with which it has been charged, and it "is the intent of the general assembly that the board should be as free as is possible to operate its facilities and to pursue its mission with the principles of free enterprise." Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-406(a)(1)(A). See also Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-408(e) and Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-414(a)(2).

In 2020, the General Assembly added Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-415 to the TRICOR Inmate Labor Act, giving TRICOR the authority to enter into contractual agreements with counties and cities to provide "work training programs" for prisoners incarcerated in county and city jails.

Whether "work training programs" as used in Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-415 includes "work release programs" is a question of statutory construction. When construing a statute, courts must ascertain and give effect to the legislative intent without unduly restricting or expanding a statute's coverage beyond its intended scope. State v. Strode, 232 S.W.3d 1, 9 (Tenn. 2007). Legislative intent is determined from the natural and ordinary meaning of the statutory language within the context of the entire statute without any forced or subtle construction. Id. That is, words used in a statute "must be given their natural and ordinary meaning in the context in which they appear and in light of the statute's general purpose." Mills v. Fulmarque, Inc., 360 S.W.3d 362, 368 (Tenn. 2012). When the statutory language is clear and unambiguous, courts apply the plain language in its normal and accepted use. State v. Strode, 232 S.W.3d at 9.

"Work training programs" is a broad, comprehensive term, and especially when it is read in the context of the express legislative intent in creating TRICOR, the broad scope of TRICOR's mission, and in the context of the Act as a whole, that term clearly includes "work release programs." The General Assembly's express legislative intent is for TRICOR to provide prisoners with a broad array of work training programs, including jobs in manufacturing, business services or agriculture for rehabilitation and reintegration purposes. But the General Assembly has not limited or carved out exceptions to the work training programs that TRICOR may provide; to the contrary it intends for TRICOR to pursue its mission freely, Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-406(a)(1)(A), § 41-22-408(e), and § 41-22-414(a)(2), and has broadly delegated authority to TRICOR to provide any "other" programs and services that TRICOR deems necessary to support an inmate's rehabilitative and reintegration efforts, Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-403(2)(G).

"Work release" is a narrower term; it refers to a specific kind of prisoner rehabilitative program that is available, for example, to prisoners in county workhouses. See, e.g., Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 41-2-127 and 128 (establishing work release programs in county workhouses). A work release program is a rehabilitative jobs program that allows a prisoner who has been committed to the custody of a county workhouse or is in similar confinement "to leave the workhouse during approved working hours to work at a place of employment and to earn a living[.]" Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-2-134(b); see also State v. Norton, No. M2004-02791-CCA-R3-CD, 2005 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 1170, at *6 (Crim. App. Nov. 7, 2005) (work release is not a form of probation).

Work release programs are generally understood to give the inmate a connection to the community with a focus on transitioning from confinement by providing post-release employment contacts and opportunities. Through these programs, prisoners acquire and maintain job skills, develop good work habits, and learn how to find and keep employment. They earn an income which is used to offset the costs of confinement. See, e.g., Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 41-2-127 and 128 (establishing work release programs in county workhouses).

Work release programs are thus fully aligned with the purposes and mission that the General Assembly has set for TRICOR. Like work release programs, the purpose of the TRICOR inmate rehabilitative initiative is to provide vocational training and education and to develop and maintain post-release employment opportunities for inmates. Like work release programs, TRICOR's rehabilitative mission expressly includes putting inmates to work in a wide variety of jobs, which allows them to generate revenue to offset the cost of confinement and to develop good work habits and job skills.

Thus, a work release program is simply one kind of work training program. Indeed, it would not make sense to read "work release program" out of "work training program" in Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-415 since that addition to the Act deals specifically with inmates in county and city jails, the very inmates for whom work release programs have been statutorily authorized. Any other reading would unduly restrict the legislatively intended scope of § 41-22-415.

In sum, the natural and ordinary meaning of the phrase "work training programs" in Tenn. Code Ann. § 41-22-415, when read in the context of the statute and its general purpose, is best construed to include the subset of "work release programs."

HERBERT H. SLATERY III
Attorney General and Reporter

ANDRÉE SOPHIA BLUMSTEIN
Solicitor General

PAMELA S. LORCH
Senior Assistant Attorney General

Requested by:

David Hart, Chief Executive Officer
State of Tennessee
TRICOR
6185 Cockrill Bend Circle
Nashville, TN 37209