Wilder Youth Development Center. Photo courtesy of the Tennessee Disability Rights Association.
A class action lawsuit filed last week in Nashville federal court alleges “barbaric” violence in Tennessee’s juvenile detention centers, alleging that young people with disabilities are routinely assaulted, locked in isolated cells for months, pepper sprayed and denied rehabilitative medical care and education.
The 114-page complaint names as plaintiffs three former Tennessee inmates, their parents, and young people with disabilities who are “similarly situated,” and details a series of specific cases that reflect the “horrific experiences” of young people confined in state custody, according to the Public Interest Lawyers.
among them:
The girl, who identified herself as Jane Doe, was shackled and dragged across the floor before being placed in solitary confinement. A sexual abuse victim, she had documented mental health issues when she was pepper-sprayed and left naked in her cell. JT, 15, was isolated for months after being assaulted four times by his peers, sleeping on a bare bed frame surrounded by cockroaches, mold, and urine. Staff at the facility gave 10 to 12 incarcerated youths packets of ramen noodles to beat MG after he allegedly argued back in an argument. Lawyers for the detained youths say staff watched the altercation, laughed and clapped, and did nothing to intervene. The practice is so frequent that it’s called “putting noodles on their heads,” the lawyers said.
The lawsuit detailing these allegations was filed last week in U.S. District Court by the Tennessee Disability Rights Association, the California-based Youth Law Center, and the private law firm Sanford Heisler Sharp. The law firms argue that Tennessee is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which provides protections against excessive force, violent situations, and lack of medical care.
In an interview, Jack Derryberry, legal director for the Tennessee Disability Rights Alliance, said that in addition to the poor conditions and inhumane treatment documented in the lawsuit, the state has failed to accommodate young people with disabilities and provide them with appropriate assessments, education, medical care and rehabilitation services. Based on national estimates, he estimated that 65% to 85% of youths in Tennessee’s juvenile justice system have some kind of disability.
“Tennessee is failing to provide a safe environment for young people with disabilities in its juvenile justice system. Rather than addressing the trauma many of our young people are enduring, we are only amplifying it.”
— Jack Derryberry, Tennessee Disability Rights Association
“Tennessee has failed to provide a safe environment for young people with disabilities in its juvenile justice system,” he said. “Instead of addressing the trauma many of our young people are living with, we are only amplifying that trauma many times over.”
The state of Tennessee, the Department of Child Services and its director, Margie Quinn, and Department of Education Director Lizette Gonzalez Reynolds are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Amy Rannom-Wilhite, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Jonathan Scurmetti, confirmed the lawsuit but declined to comment.
Margie Quinn
Lawsuits have been filed in more than a dozen states across the country alleging abusive conditions in juvenile detention centers. In New York, Maryland and Oklahoma, the focus has been on sexual abuse of incarcerated youths by facility staff, some dating back decades. In North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina, Illinois and Louisiana, lawsuits have also been filed alleging solitary confinement, poor conditions and physical abuse.
Tennessee has 17 juvenile detention centers that house pre-sentence youths, one juvenile prison and three shelters licensed as residential programs and run by private providers, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys. Problems inside these facilities, which house youth ages 13 to 18 who have committed crimes, are not new.
In 2022, the Tennessee Comptroller released a performance audit of the Department of Child Welfare, finding that failures in management, oversight and staffing had left children in “dangerous conditions” in juvenile detention facilities overseen by the department. The report also found that the department had failed to comply with the provisions of the Prison Rape Elimination Act in most facilities. A 2003 federal law requires regular reporting, prevention training and screening for sexual abuse.
The Tennessee Disability Rights Association and the Youth Law Center have documented the state of Tennessee’s juvenile justice system for the past three years. In 2022, they released a report, “Designed to Fail: A Report on Wilder Youth Development Center,” that documented violence and abuse in the state’s juvenile prisons. Later that year, the organizations released “Families, Not Institutions,” which included recommendations to address trauma and promote healing, including through providing community-based mental health services to youth and their relatives.
Lawyers for the youth say such services are desperately needed: During a 2022 legislative hearing, state officials found that 86% of youth in state custody have had previous contact with child welfare services due to childhood abuse or neglect.
Brian Blalock
Brian Blalock, lead attorney for the Youth Law Center, said the case shows Tennessee’s “child welfare system” is “currently in a catastrophic mess.”
Advocates say that when young people are detained for crimes, their traumatic histories are exacerbated by abusive officials who use disciplinary tactics that violate state and federal laws. Many also have little education and no access to mental health care.
“Instead of addressing and treating these youth’s disorders, Defendants punish them for their symptoms through violent and abusive tactics of behavioral control, including solitary confinement, pepper spray and peer violence,” the lawsuit states.
And despite states banning the use of solitary confinement for “administrative convenience” or retaliation, the lawyers argue that youths who have experienced trauma are spending months in solitary confinement for relatively minor misconduct. The lawyers write that one boy, JW, was sent to solitary confinement for laughing. The trial also cites another boy who was put in solitary confinement 23 hours a day as punishment for not stopping to watch television, screaming and throwing his clothes. Months of isolation led one youth to have suicidal thoughts and another to try to pull out his hair.
The lawsuit also alleges that staff staged fights between young people, and in some cases instigated them with bribes of ramen noodles and marijuana, which led to assaults causing serious physical and psychological harm, court documents state.
The lawsuit says pepper spray use has also gotten out of control at private facilities that contract with the state. At the Middle Tennessee Juvenile Detention Center, staff used chemical restraints 48 times each month in 2021. A boy identified as CK was pepper sprayed during an “autistic tantrum” and denied medical attention for three hours, the lawsuit says.
In Tennessee, inmates face insufficient oversight and have become overly reliant on psychotropic medication to control their behavior, said Jasmine Miller, an attorney with the Youth Law Center.
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In addition to immediately stopping the abuse of youth in state custody, state officials must begin proper evaluations of youth when they are detained and provide them with medical and mental health care tailored to their needs, she said. She also said the state currently does not keep statistics on the number of youth who have disabilities and require special education services, another major gap in proper care.
“When staff have no idea about youth behavior or how to manage it, the only thing they can think of is to lock kids in solitary confinement,” Miller said. “This is really disturbing.”