How abuse in some of Tennessee's juvenile prisons remained under wraps

+ National How abuse in some of Tennessee's juvenile prisons remained under wraps September 22, 20266:05 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered From By Paige Pfleger TENNESSEE JUVENILE PRISONS ABUSE Listen &middot; 3:36 3:36 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5969998/nx-s1-9936206" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript Employees at a group of privately-run juvenile detention facilities across Tennessee failed to report suspected physical and sexual abuse to the state, and were allegedly discouraged from calling 911. Sponsor Message Transcript JUANA SUMMERS, HOST: More than a dozen former staffers at several Tennessee youth prisons say the facilities failed to report suspected abuse and serious incidents to the state. That is according to a new investigation from WPLN and ProPublica. And now state officials are looking into the matter. One of the reporters on that story is Paige Pfleger of member station WPLN. And Paige is with us now. Hi.

+ PAIGE PFLEGER, BYLINE: Hey there. SUMMERS: Paige, tell us, what did your reporting uncover that was going on at these juvenile facilities? PFLEGER: Yeah, so when something goes wrong, facility leaders are supposed to report what happened to the state's Department of Children Services or DCS. But staffers who worked there told my reporting partner, Aliyya Swaby, and me that these facilities failed to report suspected abuse of kids to state officials. In one case, according to state documents, a doctor found that a boy had bruises across 80% of his body in various stages of healing as though he had been beaten multiple times. But the facility never reported it. Former staffers also told us that they felt pressured to not call 911. One former facility nurse told us that another staffer discouraged her from calling 911 after a guard was badly beaten by youth. Turns out that guard had a lacerated spleen, a concussion and broken ribs. The company that operates these facilities, Wayne Halfway House, told us that the situation was contained within a matter of minutes before law enforcement response was needed. SUMMERS: What else did you find? PFLEGER: Nearly two dozen former employees and teens said that they suspected sexual abuse was taking place even though sexual relationships between staff and incarcerated youth are illegal under any circumstances. But some employees say that they did not report that abuse because they were scared of retaliation from leadership. SUMMERS: And these facilities that you were investigating, who runs them? PFLEGER: So Jason Crews is a businessman from a small town here in Tennessee. And over the years, he has quietly grown his company, Wayne Halfway House, and the state has really become reliant on him as an operator of juvenile facilities. Today, his company runs all three of the state's highest security juvenile prisons - think barbed wire, cells that lock. He has about 300 total beds for juvenile justice youth. SUMMERS: And the company, how did it respond to these allegations? PFLEGER: We sent a long list of questions to the company, and in a statement, they said that it follows state policy and law. Officials vehemently denied that Crews or his company have ever discouraged staff from reporting serious or life-threatening incidents to the state or to 911. It describes its former employees that we interviewed as untrustworthy sources with a clear bias against the company and their allegations as, quote, "substantially flawed." SUMMERS: What about the state of Tennessee? PFLEGER: Yeah, as for the state, the Department of Children Services confirmed that they're looking into the incidents that our reporting uncovered. And just last week, several state lawmakers wrote a letter to DCS demanding answers about safety and oversight in these facilities in response to our investigation. But DCS did not respond to our request for comment about that letter. SUMMERS: Paige Pfleger is WPLN's criminal justice reporter and a fellow in the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. Paige, thank you. PFLEGER: Thank you for having me. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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