Tennessee Code Title 4. State Government § 4-3-603

(a) The commissioner is the executive officer of the department of correction and has the immediate charge of the management and government of the institutions of the department, and the commissioner shall devote the commissioner's entire time and attention to the duties of the commissioner's position.

(b) In addition to any other duties provided by law, when it appears to the commissioner, in the commissioner's sole discretion, that the available facilities and institutions of the department that are designed for the custody of inmates are overcrowded, the commissioner shall endeavor to alleviate such overcrowded conditions by contracting with local governmental entities, when possible, for the care, custody, and control in local jails, workhouses, penal farms or other such facilities, of inmates who have been committed to the department, or by any other means permitted by law.