Facing a huge expenditure to implement court-ordered reform in its corrections system, the Tennessee legislature considered a bill that would establish comprehensive privatization in the State's corrections system. As the bill was being considered in committee, powerful lobbies opposing the bill created sufficient uncertainty about the benefits of privatization to kill the initial bill in committee. Moreover, the modest privatization bill that was enacted (privatization of a single facility) was burdened with complex provisions designed to protect State employee interests, prisoners' rights, and the State from legal liability. These requirements proved so costly for would-be contractors that they were deterred from bidding. The demise of corrections privatization may be less due to philosophical and constitutional issues than to economic uncertainty occasioned by the political necessity to accommodate groups with interests other than fiscal efficiency. 30 footnotes.