• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Nashville's local news and NPR station

Search
Listen Listen
Give Now
  • Search
  • News
    • Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom
    • Arts, Culture & Music
    • Criminal Justice
    • Curious Nashville
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • Housing
    • Metro Government
    • Race & Equity
    • State Politics
  • Schedule
    • WPLN-FM
    • WPLN International
  • Support
    • Give Now
    • Ways to Support
    • Producers’ Circle
    • Donor Hub
    • Donate A Car
    • Give Stock
    • Business Support
    • Planned Giving
  • Shows + Podcasts
    • NashVillager
    • This Is Nashville
    • The Promise
    • Curious Nashville
    • See All
  • NashVillager
    • Podcast
    • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Giveaways
  • Donor Hub
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

criminal justice

Hundreds of Tennesseans who received lengthy prison sentences for selling drugs near schools could go home early

By Samantha Max

April 13, 2022

Listen

Decades ago, Tennessee created drug-free school zone laws to deter people from selling drugs in places where children are likely to be. But now, the state is making adjustments for cases that don’t involve kids.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: Bill Lee, criminal justice, drugs, prisons

His mother and sister were murdered. He’s focused his grief on exposing loopholes that endanger domestic violence victims.

By Paige Pfleger

April 11, 2022

Listen

Alex Youn has spent the year since his mother and sister’s deaths trying to figure out what went wrong in their case. He discovered loopholes in the criminal justice system, and turned those loopholes into law to protect future domestic violence victims.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, Features, Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: criminal justice, domestic violence, gun dispossession, gun laws, guns, Politics

At the Statehouse: A precarious week for bills penalizing abortions, transgender athletes and the incarcerated

By Julia Ritchey

April 1, 2022

File photo of State Sen. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon.

An abortion bill hits a dead end, a ban on transgender athletes in college is revived and a warning is issued over a criminal justice bill that could backfire.

Filed Under: Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: 112th Tennessee General Assembly, Abortion, collegiate sports, criminal justice, lgbtq, RNC, tnleg, tnpol, transgender athletes

‘People change’: Cyntoia Brown-Long wants Tennessee lawmakers to let people out of prison sooner, not later

By Samantha Max

March 16, 2022

Listen

Cyntoia Brown-Long was given a second chance after she was sentenced to life in prison as a teenager. She thinks others behind bars should get one, too.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, WPLN News Tagged With: 112th Tennessee General Assembly, Bill Haslam, criminal justice, Cyntoia Brown, mandatory minimum sentences, sexual abuse

On the verge of release, a West Tennessee man shares how he ‘kept hope alive’ while serving a life sentence

By Katie Riordan

March 7, 2022

A 73-year-old Memphis man was meant to die in prison after receiving two life sentences under Tennessee’s so-called three strikes law for a set of armed robberies. God, he says, had other plans.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, WPLN News Tagged With: Bill Lee, Charles Hall, criminal justice, Northwest Correctional Complex

Tennessee lawmakers could make big changes to criminal sentences in 2022

By Samantha Max

January 12, 2022

Listen

Some want to make it easier for people to get out of prison. Others want to make it harder.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, WPLN News Tagged With: criminal justice, General Assembly, prisons, Tennessee General Assembly, Tennessee Legislature, William Lamberth

Tennessee’s governor is granting clemency to 17 people and paving the way for more in the future

By Samantha Max

December 2, 2021

Gov. Bill Lee is granting them clemency — and creating a process for many more to be released early from prison.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, WPLN News Tagged With: Bill Lee, Clemency, criminal justice

Lawyers Search For Kids Who Were Illegally Jailed In Rutherford County For Multimillion Dollar Settlement

By Meribah Knight

September 30, 2021

Listen

After Rutherford County settled a large class action lawsuit over its policies for arresting and detaining children, lawyers who sued the county are scrambling to find more than a thousand children who are owed compensation. And close to $6 million is at stake.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, WPLN News Tagged With: criminal justice, juvenile detention, Rutherford County

« Previous Page

Primary Sidebar

Become a sponsor?
Become a sponsor?
Become a sponsor?

Footer

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Staff
  • Employment Opportunities
  • Impact Report
  • Financial, FCC and CPB Reports
  • WPLN News Transparency Report
  • FCC Public File
  • Board of Directors
  • Privacy Policy

Listen

  • Ways To Listen
  • Shows & Podcasts
  • iPhone App
  • Android App
  • Alexa Smart Speakers

Sister Stations

  • WPLN International
  • 91.ONE, WNXP
  • Nashville Classical Radio

Stay Connected

  • Contact News Department
  • Receive Our Newsletters
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
WPLN News, Nashville Public Radio
630 Mainstream Drive
Nashville, TN 37228

Phone: (615) 760-2903
©2026 Nashville Public Radio

on-air light On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM

Pop-Up Player : All Channels
Launch Streaming Player