How abuse in a Tennessee businessman’s juvenile prisons remained under wraps

By: Paige Pfleger, Aliyya Swaby

Outlets: Tennessee Lookout

Published: August 13, 2026

Words: 3,988

Last Updated: 5 days, 10 hours ago

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This story was originally published by ProPublica.

The video clip lasted less than two minutes, but Tonya Webb remembers every second as heartbreaking.

The grainy surveillance footage, dated June 29, 2024, showed a teenager in an anti-suicide smock being dragged violently by other teens across the floor at Middle Tennessee Juvenile Detention Center. As guards watched, the teens pulled the smock over the boy’s head, exposing his naked body. Then they stuffed him, limbs …

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