Members of Congress are asking for an investigation into Rutherford County's juvenile court followin
Eleven members of Congress sent a letter Wednesday asking the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the juvenile justice system in Rutherford County based on reporting published this month by WPLN News and ProPublica.
The letter, sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland, says, “Tennessee’s children deserve to enjoy their childhoods without the fear of being unjustly searched, detained, charged, and imprisoned.” The letter’s signers, all Democrats, include Reps. Steve Cohen, from Memphis; Val Demings, from Florida; Cori Bush, from Missouri; and Ted Lieu, from California. Cohen is on the House Judiciary Committee and chairs the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
The WPLN News and ProPublica story detailed how Rutherford County’s juvenile justice system had for years illegally arrested and detained children. A federal judge ordered the county to stop using an illegal detention policy in 2017. In June of this year, the county agreed to pay up to $11 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by kids who alleged that they had been illegally arrested or jailed.
In 2014, the last year for which Tennessee published an annual statistical report on how many kids were jailed in cases referred to juvenile court, Rutherford County detained nearly 10 times the state average. The system is overseen by Donna Scott Davenport, the only elected juvenile court judge the county has ever had.
Read more: https://wpln.org/post/members-of-congress-are-asking-for-an-investigation-into-rutherford-countys-juvenile-court-following-wplns-report/