Criminal justice reform advocates fought for years to shrink jail rosters, route cases away from incarceration and ease restrictions keeping people in prison after they've earned the chance to get out.

Those efforts have hit logjams of skeptical law enforcement and intransigent political forces. Even under Gov. Bill Lee, who made criminal justice reform a top priority, progress has been piecemeal.

But the coronavirus has upended familiar dynamics. The demand to mitigate the risk of a deadly COVID-19 outbreak in overcrowded jails and prisons has reframed reforms as a matter of life and death — for inmates and correction officers alike.

The sudden shift could become a foothold for advocates, one they hope could last beyond the crisis.

"It's definitely caused the entire criminal justice system to act in one accord in a way that it doesn't normally," said Josh Spickler, executive director of the criminal justice advocacy group Just City Memphis. "We're seeing a hyper-acceleration of things that seem pretty obvious to advocates like me."

Advocates are relying on a familiar playbook that calls for reducing or eliminating jail time for low-level offenses or technical infractions. Under the threat of outbreaks behind bars, those strategies are gaining traction.

"Our recommendations in terms of driving down the prison population are the same as they've always been," said Julie Warren, director of state initiatives for Right on Crime. The group pushes for reform using conservative principles, stressing the cost of mass incarceration, the bureaucracy that's grown around the justice system and the need to focus resources on safety and violent crime.

"Granted there is a new, added layer of urgency, but the principles are still the same and the principles will stay the same once this pandemic is over."

Hundreds of inmates have been released

Change was swift in the month since the pandemic hit Tennessee. Key players from every side of the criminal justice system confronted the impact of COVID-19.

Lee, whose reform plans for this year were sidelined when the legislative session ended abruptly, is "encouraged by the innovation and locally driven solutions shown by the justice and law enforcement community," his spokesperson Gillum Ferguson said.

Hundreds of Tennessee inmates have been released as sheriffs teamed up with defense attorneys, prosecutors and judges to reduce populations in local lock-ups.

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The parole board agreed to revisit cases of prison inmates who were granted parole but never released because of additional requirements for classes and treatment that aren't always available.

In a remarkable move, the Tennessee Supreme Court ordered judges across the state to develop plans to release inmates and keep new defendants out of confinement, especially for low-level charges.

While the state's largest cities already took steps to expand pretrial release and reduce penalties for minor or technical infractions before the rise of COVID-19, the high court's order thrust those efforts beyond urban cores and into new terrain.

An 'immediate problem right in front of our face'

Some advocates are pushing state leaders to go further.

Former Nashville public defender Dawn Deaner joined a slate of advocacy groups last month asking the state Supreme Court to mandate more aggressive release policies due to the heightened danger of the crisis. The city's current public defender, Martesha Johnson, is asking city judges to release whole swaths of inmates in vulnerable populations.

There is evidence local leaders are embracing the high court's request to reduce jail populations. Knox, Rutherford and Bradley counties were highlighted by advocates as particularly bold.

State Rep. Michael Curcio, R-Dickson, who has pushed reforms in the General Assembly for years, said COVID-19 turned a sometimes contentious debate on its head.

Tennessee jails have been overcrowded and understaffed for years. And the Department of Correction's budget has soared to nearly $1 billion.

Some key local and state leaders, previously resistant to work on any changes that could be perceived as weak on crime, have no choice but to find solutions now.

"It's taken the whole debate out of it," Curcio said. "We've got this immediate problem right in front of our face to solve."

Curcio said he talked to prosecutors and sheriffs around the state who were motivated to protect the correction officers and deputies who work with inmates and are vulnerable to any potential outbreak.

That vulnerability can be shunted by smaller inmate populations, which would free up space and allow jail staff to isolate the sick.

"That's the lens that we're looking at this through, and that has provided some clarity," Curcio said. "Unfortunately it took this global pandemic to look at it this way, but it's really all hands on deck now.

"I don't know if it'll continue or not, but it helps develop some muscle memory moving forward," Curcio said.

A new wave of reforms

Reform supporters hope those changes could generate long-lasting improvements to the system and the state.

Spickler, the Memphis advocate, cited dramatic shifts in Knox County as evidence.

An existing pretrial release program was expanded on a fast track, and now most misdemeanor offenders sidestep jail time without a demand for cash bail.

Knoxville attorney Jonathan Cooper, president of the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the program seemed to be doing well after it was "ramped up overnight."

Spickler called the work in Knox County "aggressive and progressive and courageous."

"It's definitely a silver lining," Spickler said of the new wave of burgeoning reforms.

"It gives me hope that things still work," he said. "I have some optimism that maybe it's not as entrenched and as bad as I thought."

Reach Adam Tamburin at atamburin@tennessean.com or 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.