NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A juvenile detention center in Shelby County has reduced the use of solitary confinement among children in its care, according to a new report from the Center for Children's Law and Policy and other organizations.

In 2012, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice found that youths detained at the Shelby County facility were discriminated against, held in unsafe conditions and subjected to solitary confinement.

Mark Soler, executive director of the Center for Children's Law and Policy, points out that confining children to their rooms without anything to do for long periods of time is an abusive practice.

"When the U.S. Department of Justice did its investigation into the Shelby County juvenile court, they found a number of serious constitutional concerns,” Soler points out. “What was happening in Shelby County is that young people were being disciplined for getting into an argument, and they were being put into their rooms for many hours at a time – long past the time when they had calmed down."

As of 2018, records show a sharp reduction in the use of room confinement, and detention center staff must now obtain permission before putting a child in confinement, according to the report.

Soler says Shelby County undertook a variety of reforms, including transferring operation of the juvenile detention center to the Shelby County sheriff, adding new programming and group activities for youths, hiring a full-time counselor, and extending visitation and phone call times.

Widespread research shows that solitary or room confinement can cause serious physiological harm to both adults and youths.

Soler says that youth, whose brains are still developing, are especially vulnerable. He also points out that flaws in the juvenile justice system mostly affect black children.

"Most of the arrests that are made of young people for allegedly committing crimes are made in a limited number of neighborhoods, and those are neighborhoods that are highly populated by African-Americans,” he states. “So, the majority of young people at the detention facility, the majority of young people in the juvenile justice system in Shelby County are African-American."

Last year, state legislators passed HB 2271, also known as the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018, which, among other reforms, aims to limit the use of isolation as a tool of punishment for youths in the system.


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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohioans across religious traditions have come together as one voice this week to speak out against capital punishment.

Dozens of faith communities participated in vigils, prayer services and virtual conversations during Death Penalty Abolition Week, which comes to a close Sunday with a virtual worship service, entitled, "Restorative Love, Redemptive Grace."

Rev. Sharon Risher, a death penalty abolitionist, will share the story of her path to forgiveness after her mother was among nine people gunned down in the 2015 Charleston, S.C., church shooting.

"That horrific event that killed my mother made me really delve into my soul," Risher recounted. "And I came out understanding that I could not condone the death penalty. Because I understand with my faith that God is restorative and redemptive."

There is no cost to attend Sunday's virtual service. It will also feature Christian author and activist Shane Claiborne.

Risher explained her faith helped turn her trauma into activism and eventually forgive the shooter, who is currently awaiting execution at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

"People of faith can sometimes go through the most horrific things," Risher noted. "But because of their faith, they could get to a point of forgiveness, which then leads to healing."

Oct. 19 marks 40 years since Ohio enacted its current death-penalty statute.

Rev. Jack Sullivan, Jr., executive director of the Ohio Council of Churches, said there is strong bipartisan support behind Senate Bill 103 and House Bill 183, which would abolish it.

"No one's rejecting accountability as being an important component in dealing with people who have hurt us or angered us the most," Sullivan pointed out. "But the sponsored homicide of those people is immoral, and it's illogical, and it's just wrong."

Sullivan, whose sister was murdered, thinks victims' families would be better served by redirecting money used for capital cases toward supportive services to help with their healing.

"Executions do not assist in dealing with grief," Sullivan asserted. "They do not give us wholeness or closure. They just continue the cycle of death. And co-victims need more than that. They need the state to invest in their wellbeing and their movement forward, and their restoration."

RALEIGH, N.C. - An online conversation this Sunday will focus on faith with people affected by capital punishment.

Panelists will include George Wilkerson, now living on North Carolina's death row; Andre Smith, who teaches Buddhism to men in prison and lost his son to homicide; and the Rev. Sharon Risher, who lost her mother and two cousins in the shooting at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.

Noel Nickle, executive director of the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said the state hasn't executed anyone since 2006, but there is no official moratorium on executions.

"And we also look to not just the possibility of executions, but the fact that people are still sentenced to death in our state," she said. "We have a couple of pending capital trials still for 2021."

She also pointed to the stark racial disparity in capital punishment sentencing, citing a study of death penalty trials in North Carolina from 1990 to 2010 that found racial bias tainted sentencing in trials with all-white juries.

Panelist George Wilkerson, who has spent the past 15 years on death row, said he's witnessed others in prison undergo profound transformations, especially when they're guided by their faith.

"And from my personal experience, I've seen it - I've seen it around me," he said. "I see that people can change, that people are redeemable. No matter what they've done."

Jennifer Copeland, executive director of the North Carolina Council of Churches said Christians working toward a more just society believe there's a moral imperative for the criminal justice system to serve as an agent of rehabilitation, rather than a vehicle for oppression.

"The reason we're doing this Death Penalty Abolition Sabbath - and it's meant for all faith communities to participate, of course - is to raise awareness about the reality that the death penalty is still on the books in North Carolina," she said.

A Pew poll released in June found that, despite concerns over racial bias in death sentencing and whether it deters crime, a majority of Americans say they favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder. However, 78% of those surveyed believe there is some risk that an innocent person could be put to death.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Law enforcement agencies are reassessing traffic-stop policies amid concerns from racial-justice advocates.

In Minnesota, a new project is focusing research and financial support for these changes, to help people affected by these laws.

Brooklyn Center leaders recently noted their reform plans include ending arrests for non-moving traffic violations. Elsewhere, the Ramsey County Attorney said last month his office would no longer prosecute cases stemming solely from traffic stops that are not a threat to public safety.

Eric Jolly, president and CEO of the Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation, said they are getting behind the county's plan with a new fund.

"When people's safety is not at stake, then there's no reason to create a system that causes that anxiety and doesn't reduce the safety concerns," Jolly asserted.

The fund will help determine if the changes are effective in avoiding deadly encounters, and it provides aid to low-income drivers in need of minor repairs that could lead to traffic stops, like a broken tail light.

The Stanford Open Policing Project showed in cities like St. Paul, police stop Black drivers at higher rates than whites. Some law-enforcement associations argued the rule changes will add to public safety problems, not decrease them.

But reform advocates contended longstanding policies about traffic stops rarely help law enforcement build a case. Instead, they said the policies have eroded trust between police and communities of color.

Jolly emphasized it is time to change that dynamic.

"Each time, the pull-over gets more and more anxiety provoking," Jolly observed. "And to stop that means that the next pull-over will have meaning and value."

Ramsey County's plan has the backing of local police leaders, including St. Paul's police chief. Jolly added the approach allows officers to better focus on more pressing matters.

"This is a critical issue as well in greater Minnesota," Jolly remarked. "The rest of Minnesota has to worry about, 'What are the availabilities of the sheriffs? How can we free up their time?'"

The fund will also help establish a way for drivers to be notified of a minor violation without being pulled over. Supporters hope the effort inspires other agencies to consider changes.