TROUBLING DATA

Tennessee County Jails Black Kids at More Than Double Their Population

The county, which has faced criticism for its “inhumane” juvenile justice system rooted in “barbarism,” has seen the racial disparity between Black and white juveniles rise.

An investigation by ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio found that 38 percent of children arrested in one Tennessee county over the last 11 years were Black—despite its Black child population only being about 15 percent over the same period. Rutherford County’s incarceration rates are not outliers nationally, as about 41 percent of juveniles arrested are Black despite them making up 15 percent of the child population. But the county, which has previously faced criticism for its “inhumane” juvenile justice system rooted in “barbarism,” has seen its racial disparity between Black and white juveniles rise, compared to an overall national shrinkage: 58 percent of all children arrested in the county between 2018 and 2021 were Black, compared to 36 percent between 2010 and 2017, according to data from the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth.