NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction barring Rutherford County from putting juvenile offenders in solitary confinement.
U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger said putting kids in solitary confinement was cruel and inhuman punishment and defendants were not likely to prevail in their lawsuit.
The court's decision comes in the midst of a class-action lawsuit against the County and the Tennessee Department of Children's Services that was originally filed last year on behalf of a 15-year-old. The lawsuit alleged the boy was held in isolation in a concrete cell for 23 hours a day.
Court records show that 128 juveniles in Rutherford County were put in isolation as punishment during about a seven-month period last year.
Phone and email messages with the Rutherford County attorney's office weren't immediately returned.