I am in receipt of your email regarding Mr. Fleming's prior criminal history and status in Fayette County.

CMC stands for Corrections Management Corporation, which is a private entity that provides intensive supervision for eligible defendants placed by the Court on "Community Corrections", or house arrest, as a sentencing alternative to incarceration. This intensive form of supervised probation is a heightened form of release into the community by which statutorily eligible offenders are closely monitored by CMC officers, and includes house arrest, employment, drug testing, and fines and restitution payment schedule requirements. As you may be aware, despite Mr. Fleming's CMC release status, he has new pending charges in Fayette County, as well as those in Mississippi, and my office has now asked the Court to call his existing bond, revoke his CMC probation, and has issued a new warrant for his arrest. I am just as frustrated as you at the fact that, despite being found guilty of multiple violent offenses, Mr. Fleming was able to be released back into the community after serving about 1 year of a multiple year sentence on those felonies. However, please know that Tennessee law allows for the same, and in some cases presumes and requires that Judges grant such relief for eligible offenders, who have little or no prior criminal history at the time. Each of the felonies that Mr. Fleming was convicted of are what we call "30% crimes", as opposed to 100% crimes. What that means is that 8 years doesn't really mean 8 years. It means that the sentence is 8 years, to be served at 30% before release eligibility, with a presumption and preference of supervised probation or CMC supervision on community corrections. That is the way the law is written, and judges and prosecutors must abide by it and enforce it as it is in the statute. We don't like it or agree with it, but the law is written that way to deal with and alleviate the problem of prison overcrowding, and limited prison beds and funding to incarcerate all felons for the full length of their sentence in the Department of Corrections. That is why I, along with other DAs, Chiefs of Police, and Sheriffs across the state, are constantly lobbying our State Representatives and Senators in the General Assembly to increase sentencing ranges

and penalties for various violent and sex offenses, to impose mandatory minimum sentences, and to eliminate probation and early parole for certain offenses. Unfortunately, each time we increase those sentences, or impose longer periods of incarceration for offenses, there is a fiscal cost to the State for incarceration costs, which are about $72.00 per day per inmate for the TDOC to feed, clothe, house, and medically treat every inmate in the system. Therefore, many felonies in Tennessee, including ones such as the ones Mr. Fleming was convicted of, do not require service of the full sentence imposed, due to the requirements of the Tennessee Sentencing Guidelines. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the deceased victim in Mississippi, and we are actively using all of the resources at our disposal within existing Tennessee law to pursue and bring Mr. Fleming to justice for the crimes he has committed in Fayette County, and to revoke his CMC supervised release and impose the full measure of the sentence he received last year. We also remain committed as prosecutors and public servants, on behalf of violent crime victims, to continue to express our concern and requests to the General Assembly and the Governor's Office to change Tennessee sentencing laws to strengthen and increase penalties on violent felons, and to have more truth in sentencing for those who have demonstrated that they cannot be trusted to remain in the community, where they pose a constant threat to public safety. D. Michael Dunavant District Attorney General 25th Judicial District 121 North Main Street Ripley, Tennessee 38063 (731) 635-5163 dmdunavant@tndagc.org <mailto:dmdunavant@tndagc.org>