Hundreds of children illegally jailed in Tennessee
A long-running investigation in the US has revealed that hundreds of children have been illegally imprisoned in the state of Tennessee.
Some of the children, who were mostly African-American and range in age from 7 to 17 years old, were arrested for crimes which don't exist - such as watching a playground fight in a school and not intervening.
A class-action lawsuit against Rutherford County was settled in 2017 when the county agreed to pay nearly $400,000 to 11 children. A separate class-action lawsuit ended the county's 'filter system' which allowed detention centre staff to use their discretion whether to release a child - even though Tennessee law only allows for children to be held under specific circumstances.
The judge who oversaw all the cases still holds her position, and is up for re-election next summer.
Meribah Knight is one of the journalists that carried out the investigation.
(Photo credit: Mark Harris for ProPublica)
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