The Kids of Rutherford County

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The Kids of Rutherford County is an investigative journalism podcast about the Rutherford County, Tennessee juvenile arrest and incarceration scandal. It is hosted by Meribah Knight and produced by Serial Productions, ProPublica, and Nashville Public Radio.

Contents

Background

The show is a four-episode series hosted by Meribah Knight and produced by Serial Productions , [1] in collaboration with ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio. [2] The first two episodes were released on October, 26, 2023. [3] The two remaining episodes were released weekly on the following Thursdays. [4] The show uses the same style presentation as Serial . [5]

The show starts with a fight between middle school children; subsequently, several minors were arrested and sent to juvenile detention, some of whom were not present during the fight. [6] Some of the wrongfully incarcerated children had also been subjected to solitary confinement. [7]

Donna Scott Davenport was the county's singular juvenile court judge. Davenport had designed and oversaw an extralegal system which had dominated the juvenile court, including all cases before it, during 2000 through 2022. [8] [9] The show investigates a decade of questionable cases involving a large number of children. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rutherford County, Tennessee</span> County in Tennessee, United States

Rutherford County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located in Middle Tennessee. As of a 2023 estimate, the population was 367,101, making it the fifth-most populous county in Tennessee. A study conducted by the University of Tennessee projects Rutherford County to become the third largest county in Tennessee by population by 2050. Its county seat is Murfreesboro, which is also the geographic center of Tennessee. As of 2010, it is the center of population of Tennessee. Rutherford County is included in the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area.

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In May 2020 a 15-year-old Black sophomore from Beverly Hills, Michigan was incarcerated at a juvenile detention center for failure to complete her homework during virtual school. The teenager, referred to as Grace to conceal her identity, had been on probation for previous charges for theft and assault at the time of sentencing. Advocates and her defense team argued that she was not receiving the accommodations required by her Individualized Education Program (IEP) for her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) after her classes moved online due to coronavirus. Advocates also called the ruling evidence of systemic racism in the county's juvenile justice system.

<i>Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice</i> Podcast on mass incarceration in the US

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The juvenile justice system and jail of Rutherford County, Tennessee became a subject of state-wide, national and international controversy in the 2020s, when a journalistic investigation revealed a pattern of abnormal and illegal incarceration of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children in the county's juvenile jail at a rate ten times the state's average.

Donna Scott Davenport is the first judge to have overseen the Rutherford County, Tennessee juvenile justice system, filling the newly created position in 2000. She is also a former adjunct professor at her alma mater, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). She presided over the juvenile court and legal system for the county, appointed magistrates, set protocols, directed police and heard cases involving minors, including parents charged with child neglect. Despite published reports that Davenport operated juvenile court outside of the tenets of law, including by her own admission, Davenport remained on the bench until retiring at the end of her term in September 2022 while lawmakers debated ending her tenure sooner. Her actions while on the bench are the subject of a four-part podcast, The Kids of Rutherford County.

The Promise: Life, Death and Change in the Projects is a podcast produced by Nashville Public Radio.

References

  1. ↑ White, Peter (October 19, 2023). "Serial Sets 'The Kids of Rutherford County' As Latest Podcast". Deadline. Archived from the original on November 16, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  2. ↑ October 2023, Adam Shepherd 20. "Serial Productions to launch new podcast on illegal child detentions". www.podpod.com. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved November 16, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ Praino, Nicolle S. (October 27, 2023). "WPLN's Meribah Knight Launches 'The Kids of Rutherford County'". Nashville Scene. Archived from the original on November 16, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Press Release: Introducing 'The Kids of Rutherford County,' a new podcast from Serial Productions". Editor and Publisher. October 20, 2023. Archived from the original on November 16, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  5. ↑ Sawyer, Miranda (November 5, 2023). "The week in audio: Gangster: The Story of the Burger Bar Boys; Kids of Rutherford County; Hits Radio Breakfast with AI Fleur East – review". The Observer. ISSN   0029-7712. Archived from the original on November 16, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  6. ↑ "Seven Great New Podcasts for November". Paste Magazine. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  7. ↑ McHugh, Siobhan (December 17, 2023). "Ghosts, grit and genius: the most gripping podcasts of 2023". The Conversation. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  8. ↑ Black Children Were Jailed for a Crime That Doesn’t Exist. Almost Nothing Happened to the Adults in Charge" Meribah Knight and Ken Armstrong, ProPublica, December 15, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2024.
  9. ↑ Nicol, Patricia (November 12, 2023). "The best true crime podcasts you can listen to now". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  10. ↑ "November 2023 Best Podcasts: Missing Pages, Land of the Giants". Podcast Review. November 1, 2023. Archived from the original on November 16, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
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