Trailer

The Kids of Rutherford County

Serial Productions and the New York Times

Society & Culture, Serial, New York Times, News, True Crime

4 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2023

⏱️ 3 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For over a decade, one Tennessee county arrested and illegally jailed hundreds, maybe thousands, of children. A four-part narrative series reveals how this came to be, the adults responsible for it, and the two lawyers, former juvenile delinquents themselves, who try to do something about it. From Serial Productions and The New York Times in partnership with ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio, “The Kids of Rutherford County” is reported and hosted by Meribah Knight, a Peabody-award winning reporter based in the South. Get it everywhere you get your podcasts on Thursday, October 26th.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Do you remember what year it was that you were arrested and jailed?
0:06.0	I was so young that I don't even remember what was going on at that time.
0:12.0	Yeah, right.
0:14.0	And so you were held for you?
0:17.0	Seven?
0:18.0	Oh my God.
0:21.0	When Brandon was just seven years old,
0:24.0	police showed up at his door to arrest him.
0:26.0	Brandon's offense,
0:28.0	tagging along with his older brothers,
0:30.0	who'd wrestled in a vacant duplex
0:32.0	and left some holes in the drywall.
0:34.0	Now, police were there to take Brandon and his brothers
0:38.0	to the juvenile detention center,
0:40.0	jail basically.
0:42.0	My mom said that they weren't going to take me in,
0:46.0	but they were like, well,
0:48.0	he needs to learn his lesson.
0:50.0	Brandon was held in detention overnight
0:52.0	and then brought to the juvenile court for his hearing.
0:55.0	They had me in shackles from our feet
0:59.0	to our arms going in the court.
	...

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