> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://mike-morrison-public-safety-and-accountability.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Terrible Five Is the Sales Pitch. The Real Amendment Is Much Bigger. - URL: https://mike-morrison-public-safety-and-accountability.ghost.io/the-terrible-five-is-the-sales-pitch-the-real-amendment-is-much-bigger/ - Published: 2026-09-28T19:46:14.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-29T12:16:46.000Z - Author: Michael D. Morrison - Tags: accountability, America, Bail Reform, behind the scenes, civil rights, constitutional bail rights, constitutional rights, court accountability, Court System, Criminal Justice, Government Accountability,, institutional-accountability, Legal History, Legal Process, Mike Morrison Bail Bonding, News, Pretrial Reform, pretrial release, prosecution, Public Policy, Public Safety ***The campaign talks about five extreme crimes. The actual amendment rewrites the rules for dozens more.*** Tennessee voters are being asked to rewrite a 230-year-old constitutional protection. Amendment 1 is being sold around five of the most serious crimes — what I call the Terrible Five: terrorism, second-degree murder, aggravated rape of a child, aggravated rape, and grave torture. Capital offenses are already an exception under Tennessee’s existing Constitution. Those five newly named offenses deserve serious attention. No one is arguing otherwise. But the Terrible Five is not the amendment. The actual language reaches far beyond those headline crimes. It allows judges to deny bail, when the proof is evident or the presumption great, for any other offense that, as of November 3, 2026, requires a convicted person to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence before release. That provision expands the constitutional exception to dozens of felony offenses and variations — including multiple forms of aggravated assault, reckless and negligent homicide, certain vehicular homicides, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, firearm offenses during dangerous felonies, and qualifying repeat drug offenses. The amendment also requires the judge or magistrate to place the reasons for granting or denying bail on the record. A charge is not a conviction. The presumption of innocence does not disappear the moment someone is arrested. Yet under this amendment, the constitutional protection of pretrial liberty would be narrowed for a much larger group of defendants. People who have not been found guilty can lose their jobs, their housing, their health coverage, and their ability to support their children while the case is still pending. Pretrial detention can also make it more difficult for a defendant to assist in their own defense and can create substantial pressure to plead guilty simply to regain freedom. The operational and fiscal consequences are equally real — and still largely unexamined by the official process. TDOC monthly jail reports have shown statewide county-jail populations exceeding 27,000, including more than 10,000 pretrial felony detainees and thousands of TDOC inmates being held in local facilities. The same reports show individual facilities operating at or above their stated capacity. More pretrial detention does not create new beds, new staff, or new medical capacity. It adds demand to a system that is already strained. Every additional day of incarceration carries real costs — housing, food, medical care, security, transportation — paid by local taxpayers. The official fiscal note for SJR 25 estimated the cost of placing the amendment before voters at $9,400 in mandatory local-government expenditures for increased sample-ballot publication costs. It did not estimate what exercising the amendment’s expanded detention authority could cost Tennessee counties in additional jail-bed days, staffing, medical care, or related expenses. That omission matters. When people are later found not guilty, or charges are reduced or dismissed, the money spent on their detention is gone. When detention results in lost employment or family disruption, those consequences cannot simply be reversed because a charge is later dismissed or a defendant is found not guilty. The taxpayer dollars expended are unrecoverable. Once this language is written into the Tennessee Constitution, it is effectively permanent. Changing it would require another full constitutional amendment. We would be narrowing a foundational liberty protection on the basis of a campaign that emphasizes only the most extreme cases while the broader reach remains in the fine print. Tennessee already gives judges tools to set high bail, impose strict conditions, and protect public safety. Recent statutes have already tightened release practices. Expanding constitutional authority to detain the unconvicted across dozens of additional offenses is a major shift in the balance between liberty and government power. Call to Action Do not let the Terrible Five be the only story told about Amendment 1. Read the full text. Ask how many people this will actually affect. Ask what it could cost county jails and taxpayers. Ask what happens to families when someone who is later found not guilty has already spent months in custody. Ask whether we are willing to make this change permanent. Vote No on Amendment 1 on November 3. Talk about it at church, at work, with your neighbors, and with local officials. Share the difference between the sales pitch and the constitutional language. The Constitution is not a campaign brochure. Protect the presumption of innocence and the right that has stood since 1796. [https://www.reddit.com/u/MSBailAgentsAssoc/s/pzA6XQ5KjF](https://www.reddit.com/u/MSBailAgentsAssoc/s/pzA6XQ5KjF?ref=mike-morrison-public-safety-and-accountability.ghost.io) ### About the Author Mike Morrison is the 2026 PBUS National Bail Agent of the Year, President of the Mississippi Bail Agents Association, and a nationally recognized bail educator, speaker, and criminal justice commentator. With more than 35 years of hands-on experience as a licensed Professional Bail Agent and owner of Mike Morrison Bail Bonding Company in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, he brings a practical, real-world perspective to discussions involving American legal history, institutional accountability, constitutional rights, public safety, technology, and public policy. Morrison is recognized as a bail trainer by the Mississippi Judicial College and is a sought-after guest speaker for judicial, prosecutorial, and industry conferences across the country. He has presented before state judges, justice court clerks, prosecutors, attorneys general staff, and bail professionals nationwide. He also leads professional education and ethics programs for bail agents through the Master Class Bail Agent Series and other national training initiatives. He has published nearly 200 articles examining the institutions, policies, and decisions that affect working Americans. His writing is grounded in decades spent inside courtrooms, jails, communities, and the criminal justice system, and his commentary has surpassed **1.75 million views** across social media in 2026. Independent, plain-spoken, and focused on accountability, Morrison writes and speaks about the intersection of government, liberty, public safety, professional responsibility, and the real-world consequences of public policy in Mississippi and across the nation. © 2026 Mike Morrison. All rights reserved.