TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on May 10, 2022

A joint investigation into the Rutherford County juvenile justice system by Nashville public radio station WPLN and nonprofit newsroom ProPublica has been named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize’s feature writing category. WPLN’s Meribah Knight and ProPublica’s Ken Armstrong shed light on the county’s juvenile justice system in which children were being illegally arrested and jailed under a judge who had the highest rate of locking up children in the state. The reporters discovered that the county was jailing children in 48% of the cases referred to juvenile court, versus the statewide average of 5%. A follow up investigation revealed the county was jailing a disproportionately high percentage of Black children. WPLN has more on the story.