The Urban Institute, a Washington-based think tank, developed a calculator to predict how much the federal prison population will drop over the next eight years in light of proposed criminal justice reform. Slate reports that according to the calculator, the overall prison population will be reduced by 18 percent by September 2023 if drug traffickers saw their sentences slashed by 50 percent.

Judge Joe D. Duncan will be honored on Nov. 9 by the Lincoln Memorial University's Duncan School of Law with the unveiling of a portrait that will be permanently displayed at the school. A short program planned for 5 p.m. will be followed by a reception. 

The Association of Women Attorneys will host a panel discussion on sex trafficking tomorrow at the University of Memphis School of Law's Wade Auditorium. Ryan Dalton, a legislative writer, and former U.S. attorney Steve Parker will be included in the panel discussion. The event begins at noon and lunch will be provided.

Lower standards in law school admissions are impacting the likelihood of students passing state bar examinations, researchers tell The New York Times. “Too many law schools are filling their entering classes with people who face serious risk of not passing the bar exam,” said Kyle McEntee, executive director of Law School Transparency. McEntee said that last year 45 schools admitted seriously at-risk students, defined by students with law school admission test scores of below 150.

The Seattle Times highlights attorney Jim Emison’s work to tell the lost story of Elbert Williams, a civil rights activist and NAACP president who was murdered in Haywood County in 1940. “At first, I thought this must be a real aberration. The horror was in its commonness, not its uniqueness," Emison said. Emison, who formerly practced in Crockett and Haywood counties, is authoring a book about Williams' life. 

The Advocate and Democrat reports that Monroe county officials are weighing the option of building a new $30 million justice center instead of a jail with the price tag of $25 million. “Prisoner transportation was really the big thing,” Monroe County Mayor Tim Yates said, “The new jail will be on New Highway 68 and bringing the inmates into town would have been a big burden. It’s much better to be able to just take them from one part of the building to another.” Bids for the justice center could go out in August of 2016.

Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher joined more than 130 law enforcement officers and state and federal leaders in Washington, D.C., last week to announce the Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration policy agenda. Nooga reports that the agenda includes increasing alternatives to arrest and prosecution and reforming mandatory minimums.

Nine applicants for the Tennessee Supreme Court vacancy -- created in September by Justice Gary R. Wade's retirement -- participated in a public hearing and interview process today, The Tennessean reports. The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments will send three recommendations to Gov. Bill Haslam. "Most of our Supreme Court judges historically have had prior appellate experience," said Nashville attorney David Raybin. "That is what I think they would want to look at. You can look at the person’s track record as a judge. That gives you some idea of what that person might do while on the Supreme Court."

The Tennessee Supreme Court is “in all likelihood looking at” the issues with recently edited divorce and parenting forms, Tennessee Attorney General Hebert Slatery said Monday in Chattanooga. The Administrative Office of the Courts changed the forms over the summer to reflect gay marriage situations, but later reverted back to the earlier wording. Slatery, speaking to the Pachyderm Club, also said the U.S. Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision is an issue for states and should be not be a federal issue, The Times Free Press reports. 

Retiring Murfreesboro City Attorney Susan McGannon reflects on her 23-year career with the city government in an interview with Daily News Journal. “It has been very significant to me to be part of multiple long-term, big impact projects (e.g., the Gateway, Water and Sewer Department expansions, MTSU partnerships) from conceptualization through utilization. I know that many of these projects will make a positive economic and quality of life difference for Murfreesboro citizens for years to come,” she said. McGannon's successor Craig Tindall began work today.