Listen Nashville’s pre-K education program has been ranked in the top five among the country’s largest cities by CityHealth, a new initiative by the Beaumont Foundation and Kaiser Permanente. In its second annual report, the organization graded the cities on nine components. The group included pre-K in their study because it believes access to a […]
Metro Council Will Vote On Resolution Asking City Not To Invest Benefit Fund In Private Prisons
Listen Update: This story has been updated to reflect new information from the Office of Metro’s Finance Director, which says all Core Civic investments were sold in November 2016. Metro Council members on Tuesday will vote on a measure asking the city to stop investing money from its employee pension fund into for-profit prisons. […]
Split At The Border, 11-Year-Old Reunites With Her Mom In Middle Tennessee
Hear the radio version of this story. Scroll down to read or hear this story in Spanish. Desplácese hacia abajo para leer o escuchar esta historia en español. A Guatemalan mother separated from her 11-year-old daughter while attempting to cross into the United States to seek asylum in May reunited with her Thursday night at […]
An Immigrant Mom Seeking Asylum Arrives in Tennessee, Without Her Daughter
Listen “You’re animals.” That was the first thing Albertina Contreras says she heard after she set foot on American soil, shortly before she was shackled and her daughter taken away to a detention facility for kids. They were headed for Murfreesboro, but only Contreras made it. Now, attorneys are trying to reunite the family, in […]
How A Nashville Man’s Name Became One Of The Rallying Cries For Prison Reform
Listen The story of Matthew Charles, a Nashville man sent back to prison after being released for more than two years, has become something of a cause celeb, bringing pleas for his clemency all the way to the Oval Office.
As Matthew Charles Begins His Sentence, Calls For Clemency Grow Louder
Listen A campaign seeking the release of a Nashville man from prison is flourishing on social media in the week following WPLN’s report on Matthew Charles’s case. Charles was released early in 2016, but a higher court later ruled his sentence reduction was a mistake and ordered him back behind bars. More than 50,000 […]
As He Heads Back To Prison, A Nashville Man Says ‘Goodbye’ To The New Life He Hoped To Build
When a Nashville man named Matthew Charles was released from prison early in 2016 after a sentence reduction, he’d spent almost half his life behind bars. But in a rare move, a federal court ruled his term was reduced in error and ordered him back behind bars to finish his sentence.
Mother’s Day ‘Bail Out’ Seeks To Reunite Low-Income Families Divided By Arrests
Listen Some activists say Nashville’s new pre-trial release program, which aims to increase the number of low-income defendants released without having to pay bail, is not doing enough to keep poor people from waiting behind bars. They’re responding by organizing a “bail out” this weekend, part of a national campaign to get black moms home […]
What Would The Waffle House Shooter Have To Prove To Make An Insanity Plea?
Listen A Nashville judge has ordered that the alleged Waffle House shooter undergo a mental health evaluation before returning to court. It could be a hint defense lawyers are considering entering a not guilty plea by reason of insanity. But succeeding would take a lot more than proving the defendant is mentally ill.
Photos: Antioch Waffle House Reopens After Mass Shooting
Employees this morning removed the yellow police tape that has surrounded a Waffle House in Antioch since early Sunday morning, after a man opened fire with an AR-15, killing four and injuring several others.
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