Most of them were sent to the Student Transition Center, a facility that Memphis City Schools opened in August “for expelled and incarcerated students returning to the traditional school environment.”

Some of them were sent to Macon High Academy and Stafford High Academy – two of the district’s eight alternative schools – because their zero tolerance expulsions were pending at the time. 

And less than a dozen juveniles were transitioned back into traditional schools, because they’d met the requirements for academic and social proficiency.

“We interviewed all the students and made the best possible place for them,” said Joris M. Ray, director of Division of Alternative Schools and Programs.

“When the training center closed, we were supposed to be notified,” said Ray, “but notification was very slow. But we were able to identify maybe 150 or so students.”  

The county is now sending its juvenile offenders to the care of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS).  

The 200-bed training center, operated by the Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), housed only male offenders for Memphis and Shelby County Juvenile Court. It ceased operations this summer after state funding stopped. CCA owns and operates 65 correctional, detention and juvenile facilities nationwide.

Barry Mitchell, chief probation officer for Juvenile Court, said the state pulled out of its 1983 agreement with the court. That agreement translated to approximately $13 million a year to place up to 400 juvenile defenders in local facilities.

“The state decided that they didn’t want to do that anymore,” Mitchell said. “Now a child in custody goes to Wilder Youth Development Center in Somerville, Tenn., Woodland Hills Youth Development Center in Nashville, and various group homes.”

Now when a court referee or judge places juveniles in custody, it’s up to the state (DCS) to place them, he said. Their crimes vary from assault and battery to burglary, carjacking and robbery.

CCA still owns the building on Old Getwell Road in East Memphis. It was built in the 1980’s on 10.7 acres of county-owned land. Boys in grades 7 - 12 were sent to the training center for behavioral modification and to prepare them socially and academically to re-enter MCS.

Making the transition

Jerry Maness, director of court services for Juvenile Court, said the training center is one of three local detention facilities that were closed due to lost revenue.

The Reconation Academy for adjudicated delinquent females closed in June and the Youth Habilitation Center for adjudicated delinquent males closed in April.

“They were part of the contract,” he said. “When they decided to cancel the contract, we could no longer place these students in local facilities.”

Students who were in the facility when it closed could be placed locally. But those who have come through the system since are being moved as far away as Jefferson City (TN), Maness said.

Maness said the court was awarded the contract more than 20 years ago, but hasn’t had an increase per diem since 2001. “They said they couldn’t give us any more money. They wanted us to bring onboard psychiatrists (and other specialists). We just couldn’t do it.

“We knew in the fall of last year that the contract wasn’t going to be renewed. It has been tough on the court and DCS.”

After the contract ended, the area lost jobs as well. Maness said the situation has had “an impact on the economy that nobody has talked about.” The Shelby Training Center lost 80 jobs and the other agencies lost jobs as well, he said.

 “The transition went smooth. The last child at the training center left in July. And about 15 didn’t have any place to go that was appropriate, so DCS took them into custody and then to foster homes,” Maness said.

The court is now working on an analysis program, Maness said, to tract the release of those juveniles and their ability to re-enter school and society.

After the juveniles from the training center were released, Ray said each one was interviewed and went through orientation to determine how MCS could best place them.

“We tried to access where the students were academically and socially to see where they were performing,” said Ray. “We tested them to see what would be the best educational environment for them to succeed.”

He points to the transition center as a highly structured learning environment for the students in MCS who have been released from detention facilities.

“It’s not a residential placement center,” he said. “It is not a jail. It is not like the training center. The students move from class to class and come to school” each day from home.

Students attending the transition center spend at least six weeks in an intense learning environment until they meet their academic and social benchmarks.

“We want them to be successful before they go back to their traditional schools,” Ray said.