20/ Check out this promotional video, narrated by Judge Davenport over saxophone music and B-roll of children in black-and-white striped uniforms.
It’s titled, “What Can the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center Do For You?”
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15/ Of the 11 kids arrested in this case, four wound up being jailed under the “filter system.”
The filter system was illegal. Yet it was written into the jail’s standard operating procedures for nine years.
14/ One commissioner, who used to work in a post office, came up with the charge of “criminal responsibility for conduct of another.”
The problem? There’s no such charge.
These kids were charged with a crime that doesn’t exist.
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12/ The police officer who investigated this fight was Chrystal Templeton. She wanted to charge every kid who watched. She believed charging them was helping them.
By the time of this investigation, Templeton had been disciplined at least 37 times, her personnel file shows.
9/ Lynn Duke, appointed by Davenport, is the county’s head jailer.
Tennessee narrowly limits when kids can be locked up. But Duke had her own way: the “filter system.”
Her jail locked up any kid deemed a “TRUE threat.”
As for what’s a “TRUE threat,” her handbook didn’t say.
8/ Under Davenport, Rutherford County locked up a staggering 48% of children whose cases were referred to juvenile court.
The statewide average was 5%.
This graphic shows detention rates for juvenile courts in Tennessee. Rutherford County is on the far right.
4/ Donna Scott Davenport is the only elected juvenile court judge the county has ever had.
She oversees the courts.
She oversees the juvenile jail.
She directed police on what she called “our process” for arresting children.