Community members have raised concerns that an ordinance meant to limit solitary confinement inside the county’s juvenile detention center violates state law. The legislation’s wording might have allowed children to be held in solitary confinement for 72 hours and to be isolated as punishment for damaging property, they said.
The ordinance, which was expected to pass its third reading during Wednesday’s county commission meeting, was instead deferred and sent back to committee.
The legislation was written after an MLK50: Justice Through Journalism investigation found that youth incarcerated in the center between 2023 and 2025 were regularly held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day or more. Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris’ office, which has run the facility since October, says it has ended solitary confinement inside the center. Jerri Green, Harris’ former policy advisor, told MLK50 that the ordinance was intended to ensure future mayoral administrations would not hold children in solitary confinement…