Over the last couple of years, Tennessee and several other states have been making it easier for schools to suspend or expel students. But study after study has shown that harsh disciplinary practices such as mandatory expulsions are ineffective at reducing violence in schools.
Despite outcry over seclusion at juvenile detention centers, Tennessee lawmakers fail to pass oversight bill
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.
New report is a call to action to improve Tennessee’s juvenile justice system
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.
Rutherford County’s new oversight board will focus on troubled juvenile detention facility
The oversight board tasked with reforming Rutherford County’s Juvenile Detention Center met for the first time this week.
Travis Lampley is likely Rutherford County’s new juvenile judge. He takes over a system that sowed distrust with its treatment of children.
It appears that Republican Travis Lampley will be the next juvenile court judge of Rutherford County. Lampley is the assistant district attorney and brings a decade of experience in juvenile courts to the role.
Rutherford County detention center that illegally jailed kids will now answer to an oversight board
A juvenile detention center in Rutherford County, Tennessee, that for years illegally jailed children will now be overseen by a five-member board rather than the county’s juvenile court judge, a change designed to bring greater accountability to a long-troubled system.
What’s going on in Tennessee’s youth detention centers?
Parents and juvenile justice advocates want Tennessee to improve the conditions in youth detention facilities after a report claims that teens held at the Wilder Youth Development Center were physically and sexually abused.
Teens allege abuse and neglect inside a state-run juvenile detention facility in West Tennessee
Disability Rights Tennessee uncovered allegations from teenage boys in their visits to the Wilder Youth Development Center in West Tennessee since September of 2020. In a report released Wednesday, the group says it found violations of both state and federal laws.
Tennessee has the nation’s harshest sentence for juveniles convicted of murder. The state’s supreme court will decide if it’s constitutional.
Anyone found guilty of first-degree murder must serve a minimum of 51 years in Tennessee — even if they were juveniles at the time. Now, justices are considering whether that mandatory minimum sentence violates adolescents’ constitutional rights.
Nashville teens are ‘car hopping’ – trying unlocked car doors to see what they can find. Often, it’s guns.
Some of the guns stolen from cars in Nashville end up in the hands of young people. The consequences can be deadly.
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