KNOXVILLE, Tenn — The Tennessee Department of Children's Services said it has worked closely with the Richard L. Bean Center to address seclusion practices, and in October 2022, found the center was following state law surrounding secluding juveniles, the DCS Communications Director said in an emailed statement.
The Richard L. Bean Center is Knox County's Juvenile Detention Center. Superintendent Richard Bean and Assistant Superintendent Kay McClain run the center. The Tennessee Department of Children's Services issues the center's license.
Last month, a report from the non-profit news agency ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio said the Richard L. Bean Center illegally locks juveniles alone in cells, a practice known as seclusion. Local attorney John Valliant, the chairman of the Bean Center's board of trustees, said when juveniles are secluded, they're locked in their own cells.
"It's not like we're putting them in a cage somewhere," Valliant said in an interview last month. "They're in their normal bedroom."
New DCS rules around seclusion of juvenile inmates, "Restrictive Behavior Management" (RBM) and documentation went into effect in July 2017. WBIR reviewed DCS inspection reports of the Bean Center from 2016 through 2023. Inspectors routinely found the Bean Center would seclude juvenile inmates without correctly documenting the end times of the seclusion, inspection reports from 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 showed.
"This has been discussed with Ms. McClain and Mr. Bean on several occasions, and noted as findings, but the documentation continues to lack the appropriate times for RBM occurrences," the inspector wrote in 2021.
In 2021, state lawmakers restricted the number of hours juveniles could spend secluded. The law said facilities are no longer allowed to seclude inmates for more than two periods of 6 hours of seclusion, in a 24-hour period.
The inspector said, in 2021, Bean disagreed with the law change.
"He stated that he did not feel two to six hours was enough time to lock the youth in their rooms," the inspector wrote in August 2021.
During that inspection, the report said the inspector didn't know how long some inmates spent in seclusion because officers hadn't marked the end time for seclusion. The inspector also found the Bean Center hadn't updated its manual to reflect the new discipline policy.
By October 2022, inspection reports said no inmate was secluded for longer than 6 hours, following state law. The October 2023 report said the inspector found instances again where RBM activities didn't have an end time.
The DCS's full statement is below:
“Since 2017, when new standards for juvenile detention centers became effective, the Department of Children’s Services has worked closely with the Richard L. Bean Center to address deficiencies related to the updated standards, including proper documentation regarding seclusion. The Department recommended corrective action and has continued to work with the facility, as state law requires, to implement needed changes. Since March of 2022, DCS licensing staff have observed a significant and consistent improvement in the Bean Center’s quality of documentation, and in October of 2022 no deficiencies regarding seclusion practices were found. Approval of the Bean Center is still pending while the facility works toward updating its policy manual.“