Misdemeanor sentencing – Rehabilitative program credits – Probation – Supervision of defendants on probation

(a) In imposing a sentence for a misdemeanor, the court may conduct a separate sentencing hearing. If the court does not conduct a separate sentencing hearing, the court shall allow the parties a reasonable opportunity to be heard on the question of the length of any sentence and the manner in which the sentence is to be served. (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. Source: FDICState: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.(b) In imposing a misdemeanor sentence, the court shall fix a specific number of months, days or hours, and the defendant shall be responsible for the entire sentence undiminished by sentence credits of any sort except for credits authorized by § 40-23-101, relative to pretrial jail credit, or §§ 33-5-406 and 33-7-102, relative to mental examinations and treatment, and credits awarded in accordance with either, but not both, § 41-2-111 or § 41-2-147. The court shall impose a sentence consistent with the purposes and principles of this chapter. (c) When a defendant is serving a misdemeanor sentence, the defendant shall be continuously confined for the duration of the sentence except as provided in subsections (d) and (e); provided, that nothing in this section shall be construed as prohibiting a defendant, in the discretion of the workhouse superintendent or sheriff, from participating in work crews during the time the defendant is to be continuously confined. (d) In imposing a misdemeanor sentence, the court shall fix a percentage of the sentence that the defendant shall serve. After service of such a percentage of the sentence, the defendant shall be eligible for consideration for work release, furlough, trusty status and related rehabilitative programs. The percentage shall be expressed as zero percent (0%), ten percent (10%), twenty percent (20%), thirty percent (30%), forty percent (40%), fifty percent (50%), sixty percent (60%), seventy percent (70%) but not in excess of seventy-five percent (75%). If no percentage is expressed in the judgment, the percentage shall be considered zero percent (0%). When the defendant has served the required percentage, the administrative authority governing the rehabilitative program shall have the authority, in its discretion, to place the defendant in the programs as provided by law. In determining the percentage of the sentence to be served in actual confinement, the court shall consider the purposes of this chapter, the principles of sentencing and the enhancement and mitigating factors set forth in this chapter and shall not impose such percentages arbitrarily. (e) The court has authority to place the defendant on probation either: (1) After service of a portion of the sentence in periodic confinement or continuous confinement; or (2) Immediately after sentencing. (f) (1) The general sessions courts shall not place a defendant who is convicted of a misdemeanor on probation under the supervision of the state department of correction. Nothing in this subsection (f) is intended to restrict the use, where necessary, of any county or public probation service or private probation company established for the purpose of supervising defendants convicted of misdemeanors, unless the offender is currently being supervised by the state department of correction on a felony offense. (2) When a person employed to provide probation services to defendants convicted of a misdemeanor, whether employed by a municipality, county, public or a private probation company, is first assigned a new probationer, the person shall conduct a search of the Tennessee bureau of investigation’s sexual offender and violent sexual offender registration, ve