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Disability Rights Tennessee

Tennessee lawmakers are not changing the current school threats law. They’re adding a new one.

Paige Pfleger

April 11, 2025

A bill moving through the Tennessee state capitol would create a new felony offense for people who make threats at school.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, Education, WPLN News Tagged With: Disability Rights Tennessee, Jack Johnson, juvenile justice, William Lamberth, Zoe Jamail

Tennessee Department of Correction will offer more accommodations for deaf incarcerated people after lawsuit settlement

Paige Pfleger

March 6, 2025

Deaf, incarcerated people in TDOC custody will have access to videophones, sign language interpreters and other options behind bars.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, WPLN News Tagged With: Americans with Disabilities Act, Disability Rights Tennessee, TDOC

Threat assessment laws: Preventing mass violence or traumatizing kids?

Mary Mancini

February 27, 2025

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After the Covenant School shooting in 2023, Tennessee lawmakers passed two contradictory laws that were designed to reduce violence and discourage students from making threats.

Filed Under: Programs Tagged With: Disability Rights Tennessee, Kevin Boyer, Matthew Moore, ProPublica, school safety, Zoe Jamail

Two Families Sue After 11-Year-Old and 13-Year-Old Students Were Arrested Under Tennessee’s School Threat Law

Paige PflegerandAliyya Swaby, ProPublica

January 13, 2025

The lawsuits, filed in federal court this month, argue East Tennessee school officials violated students’ rights by calling the police on them under Tennessee’s threats of mass violence law.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, WPLN News Tagged With: Cameron Sexton, Disability Rights Tennessee, hamilton county, school safety, Williamson County

Pepper spray, beatings and neglect: DCS sued over treatment of kids in Tennessee’s juvenile justice facilities

Paige Pfleger

June 26, 2024

A class action lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges that Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services failed to protect children in the juvenile justice system.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, WPLN News Tagged With: Department of Children's Services, Disability Rights Tennessee, juvenile justice, Margie Quin

Despite outcry over seclusion at juvenile detention centers, Tennessee lawmakers fail to pass oversight bill

Paige Pfleger

April 25, 2024

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A bill that would strengthen oversight of Tennessee’s juvenile detention centers has failed, despite a concerted push for reform after multiple county-run facilities were found to be locking children alone in cells.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: Disability Rights Tennessee, juvenile detention, juvenile justice, ProPublica, Richard L. Bean Center, Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth

Disability advocates raise concerns over Jillian’s Law that would change involuntary commitment in TN

Marianna Bacallao

April 23, 2024

A bill headed to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk would make it so anyone deemed unfit to stand trial would be automatically committed.

Filed Under: WPLN News Tagged With: 113th Tennessee General Assembly, Belmont University, Disability Rights Tennessee, gun violence, involuntary commitment, mental health, tennessee house, tnleg, tnpol, William Lamberth, Zoe Jamail

New report is a call to action to improve Tennessee’s juvenile justice system

Rose Gilbert

February 19, 2024

Disability Rights Tennessee and the Youth Law Center have published a new report on the state’s juvenile criminal justice system, offering suggestions on how to prevent abuse inside detention facilities, and set kids up for success after they leave.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, Race & Equity, WPLN News Tagged With: DCS, Disability Rights Tennessee, juvenile detention, wilder youth development center, Youth Law Center

What bipartisan interest in involuntary commitment means for the system’s most vulnerable

Marianna Bacallao

December 18, 2023

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In a rare show of bipartisanship, Tennessee’s statehouse and Nashville’s city hall are pushing for a change to state law that would make it easier to detain people who are deemed a threat to themselves or others. But experts say that could leave the criminal justice system’s most vulnerable at greater risk.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, Metro, Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: Cameron Sexton, Disability Rights Tennessee, Glenn Funk, gun violence, mental health, Zoe Jamail

DCS gets approval to add more beds for kids in state custody, but not without being told to think bigger in the future

Blaise Gainey

July 13, 2023

The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services got approval to add 72 more beds for housing juvenile inmates. And they plan to ask for 500 more next session. But some lawmakers think they will need even more.  

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, WPLN News Tagged With: Cameron Sexton, DCS, Disability Rights Tennessee, Margie Quin, Tennessee Department of Children's Services

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