Tennessee’s state agency that inspects juvenile detention centers says it’s working closely with a Knoxville facility to “address deficiencies” documented in reporting by WPLN and ProPublica, including years of instances of children being illegally locked alone in cells.
The Department of Children’s Services said Friday that it plans to make public its records related to inspections of the Richard L. Bean Center. The agency says it was already working closely with the facility since 2017, when inspections found that the center failed to follow statewide policy changes, including about the use of seclusion.
“Since March of 2022, DCS licensing staff have observed a significant and consistent improvement in the Bean Center’s quality of documentation, and in October of 2022 no deficiencies regarding seclusion practices were found,” the department told WPLN in an emailed statement.
Records from the facility show that for years — and as recently as February of 2022 — the Bean Center was failing to document when children were released from seclusion. That made it impossible for the state to discern how long kids were being locked up alone.
When the inspector returned in August of 2022, the center had improved its record-keeping. But there were still 44 incidents of seclusion, including three where the child was held longer than six hours — in violation of state law and DCS policy.
By October 2022, seclusions at the Bean Center had fallen to 19 incidents. None lasted longer than six hours. Yet one child told the DCS inspector he was secluded for three days, which was not reflected in the facility’s paperwork. On that same visit, DCS documented 113 uses of “voluntary” seclusion, where a child requested to stay alone in a room. As the use of this type of seclusion has grown, inspectors have questioned how voluntary those lock ups were, and whether children knew they were allowed to leave their cells.
As it stands, DCS says that “approval of the Bean Center is still pending while the facility works toward updating its policy manual.” In previous records, inspectors found the center last updated its manual in 1999.
In the wake of WPLN and ProPublica’s investigation, 14 democratic state lawmakers sent an open letter to DCS calling for an audit of seclusion practices inside juvenile detention facilities across the state. They also called for Bean’s removal, saying he created a “culture of lawlessness” at the facility.
“It’s the state’s job to step in and make sure these facilities are following the law and are acting in the best interest of the kids in their trust,” says Sen. Heidi Campbell. “While DCS avows that they are addressing the abuse that is occurring at the Bean Center, it is increasingly apparent that the systemic issues with our juvenile justice program require immediate action, attention, and remediation as well as long term structural changes.”
DCS did not comment further on its next steps, but has been meeting with lawmakers.
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