Knoxville, TN (WOKI / WVLT) On the heels of apparent retaliatory firings at the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Detention Center, one of whom is the facility’s only nurse, Knox County’s mayor wastes no time in calling for change.
“My office is recommending that the Knox County Commission change the ordinance governing the juvenile detention center to place the center under the control of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, and I will be speaking to Governor Lee to request immediate state intervention,” Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs said Thursday over social media.
Mayor Jacobs says a meeting Wednesday, May 28 with Juvenile Court Judge Tim Irwin and Superintendent Bean, the facility’s namesake director, did result in the immediate reinstatement of the two employees but that he has “no confidence” in the center’s current leadership or its three member governing board to resolve issues moving forward.
According to Jacobs, the firings were in retaliation for the employees submitting complaints to the state, the nature of which has not been disclosed.
Per reporting from our news partner WVLT, the tail end of 2023 saw plenty of complaints about how the center was run; specifically, more than a dozen Tennessee lawmakers called for a state investigation over how long inmates were kept in solitary confinement.
