Juvenile solitary: Close-up of legs and hands-in-lap of black person wearing over-sized navy pants sitting on edge of built-in cement bench with metal toilet in background.

Hundreds of seclusions were “voluntary.” Some kids don’t see it that way.

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To hear the state of Tennessee tell it, Knoxville’s Richard L. Bean Juvenile Service Center has shown “significant and consistent improvement.” It no longer illegally locks kids up alone in cells, as an investigation by ProPublica and WPLN exposed last month.
But a closer look at the facility’s most recent inspection by the state Department of Children’s Services tells a different story. Instead of secluding children against their will, the facility claims that kids are voluntarily agreeing to be locked up alone.

Closing, and Opening, Youth Detention Centers for the Right Reasons

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Several times during my incarceration I was housed at prisons under threat of closure. As in any work place that is in danger of being shut down there was a great deal of fear on the part of staff. Often prisons are located in areas that do not have many other local jobs. Employees face not just loss of their jobs, but also forced relocation to other parts of the state. Each time this happened the genesis of the issue was a proposed budget cut to the state agency.