One child was kept in solitary confinement until he was driven to rip his hair out. Another was shackled in his cell, held down by staff and pepper sprayed for being “disrespectful.” These are just a few of the allegations laid out in a class action lawsuit filed by Disability Rights Tennessee on Wednesday.
The state of Tennessee, Department of Children’s Services, and the commissioners of both DCS and the Department of Education were named in the suit for failing to protect children in the juvenile justice system from physical and mental harm.
The more than 100 page document alleges that the juvenile justice system in Tennessee punishes children with disabilities instead of treating them, exacerbating mental health problems and pushing kids to self-harm or suicidal ideation.
And it states that Tennessee’s DCS has known about many of these issues inside facilities, yet their “policy of inaction” allowed it to continue. The attorney general’s office responded on behalf of DCS and said the department is aware of the lawsuit, but didn’t provide further comment.
The case is about the ways that DCS and others named as defendants “fail Tennessee’s most vulnerable population: children and young people with disabilities committed to their care,” according to the suit.
It details the widespread and illegal use of solitary confinement in facilities across the state. One boy with depression and PTSD was kept in solitary for over six months, the suit alleges, spending 23 hours per day alone in his cell. Staff slipped his homework under the door instead of letting him go to school. He became suicidal.
Another boy was placed in solitary more than 50 times for refusing to take off his shoes, not leaving the toilet quickly enough, or refusing to go to his room. Once, he was kept in solitary for a full month, and was denied time outside of his cell. Eventually he told staff he was tired of life and planned to hang himself.
In an investigation last year cited in the lawsuit, WPLN and ProPublica found that detention facilities across the state were using solitary confinement to punish children in violation of state law. One facility, the Richard L. Bean Center, was prolifically reliant on the practice for years. DCS knew but failed to effectively intervene. No individual facilities are named as defendants in the suit, but one of the unnamed plaintiffs did stay at the Bean Center.
The problems inside DCS-monitored facilities were not limited to solitary confinement. Facilities failed to provide children proper medical care and medications, the document states. In one case, a child was pepper sprayed, the water in his room was shut off and he was not allowed to see a nurse for twelve hours in violation of DCS standards. Pepper spray was often relied on as punishment, the suit states, even when a child was already restrained. At Middle Tennessee Juvenile Detention Center in 2021, pepper spray was used more than 48 times per month.
And staff members failed to intervene or even incited fights between kids, the suit alleges. One boy was attacked by his peers after refusing to perform sexual acts on them. He told facility staff, but instead of protecting him, staff encouraged other kids to beat him up again. The suit says that facility staff sometimes bribe youth to fight each other, and will look the other way during the assault.
It also claims that facilities are failing to meet educational requirements, especially for special education. As recently as last month, DCS admitted that the department does not maintain any records on kids in their care that are eligible for special ed.
“We have spent the last two years doing everything in our power to effect change in these systems, without success,” Jack Derryberry, Legal Director at Disability Rights Tennessee, said in a press release. “At this point, we have no choice but to ask the Courts to step in to protect those who cannot protect themselves.”
This story has been updated to include comment from the attorney general’s office.
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