Tennessee moms fight for policy changes after their sons were illegally isolated in juvenile detention

Two moms say their sons were locked in solitary confinement, sometimes for weeks at a time when they were inside a juvenile detention center. They say the boys were bribed with vapes by guards to fight other children, and they fell behind on school. Now, they are asking lawmakers for more oversight.

“One thing that hurt me most is that for three months he did not see sun,” said one mom, Aracelis. She and another mom, Michelle drove from Knoxville to the capitol in Nashville the week the legislative session began. (WPLN News is calling the moms by their middle names because their sons are both awaiting court dates, and they are worried about retaliation from the justice system.)

Their sons were 15 and 16 when they were kept at the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Service Center in Knoxville. A WPLN and ProPublica investigation in 2023 found that the detention center was illegally locking kids up in cells alone as punishment. When asked about his improper use of seclusion, the superintendent of the facility, Richard L. Bean, told WPLN News, “If I got in trouble for it, I believe I could talk to whoever got me in trouble and get out of it.”

And the Bean center wasn’t alone — multiple county-run juvenile facilities across Tennessee had violated seclusion laws, according to Department of Children’s Services inspection reports.

“I’m angry that children are taken out of homes and put in there where they’re supposed to be okay. And they’re abused and they failed them. They completely failed them,” said Michelle.

She added that she was trying to balance the anger she has with hope that lawmakers might listen to their story, and make change.

Both moms teared up when they recounted what happened to their sons in juvenile detention.

The first lawmaker that the women met with was state Sen. Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield.

He introduced legislation last year to take oversight of facilities like the Bean Center away from Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services.

DCS documented violations at the Bean center for years, but the problems have only persisted — a report from as recently as May of 2024 shows that multiple kids told a DCS inspector that children were locked in their rooms for several days, sometimes as punishment for fighting. Roberts wanted a third party entity to ensure facilities were up to standards.

In an emailed statement, DCS said the Bean center is “currently noncompliant” with licensing standards, and the department has issued multiple corrective action plans.

“If you’re keeping kids, you not only need to have transparency and accountability — it needs to be amplified. It needs to be exponential,” Roberts said.

The bill Roberts introduced last session did not make it into law. And Roberts told the women similar legislation may not make it through this year, either.

“Anybody who’s paid attention at all knows that it’s time that we step up and do something about this,” Roberts said. “But you know, when everybody’s gearing up for battle, the forces against it, they’re going to they’re going to hire lobbyists and spend money.”

State Sen. Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, listens to the moms speak in his office at the Capitol.

That’s in part what happened last year. Rep. Andrew Farmer, R-Sevierville, gutted the juvenile detention oversight bill. Farmer has ties to private juvenile facility operators in Tennessee. He received campaign donations from the facility operator’s PAC and one of the privately run centers is in his district. But, he told WPLN at the time that campaign donations don’t influence his votes on legislation.

“We were supposed to be the Bible Belt state,” Aracelis told Farmer in his office. “We’re supposed to be better. Why are all the Democratic states are doing better with their juvenile systems and we’re falling behind? I mean, that to me. I’m embarrassed. I’m a conservative. I truly believe in what God has called us to do. So we need to do better for them.”

Farmer told her he agreed with her.

“I am for accountability, especially for those who house our youth and take care of our children,” he told the moms.

But when she asked if he would sponsor oversight legislation on the house side, Farmer said he wasn’t sure if he had room on his legislative plate.

Still, he said he would look into what happened at the Bean center, and the legislation that he helped vote down last year.

“I will be emailing and calling and if I have to come back, I will save my PTO just to come here,” Aracelis told him. “We just need our kids to have a second chance. And what’s happening with them right now is just not fair.”