[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 82 (Friday, May 18, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H4235]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CHANGE IN TENNESSEE LAW

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, Tennessee has a law that is about 160 years 
old. The legislature changed it some, but the Governor needs to sign a 
bill to do it. It is a law that allows juveniles, before they are 
convicted, be sent for ``safekeeping'' in an adult penitentiary or 
prison.
  This occurred recently in two cases. The Robert F. Kennedy Human 
Rights group took one of those cases. A girl was charged with a crime 
and had a $30,000 bond assigned to her. She couldn't make that bond and 
the court sent her to an adult penitentiary where she and one other 
girl were isolated in a wing of the adult penitentiary for 40 days.
  The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights group got an attorney, Josh 
Spickler, who got the girl's bond set at a higher figure, but one that 
they were willing to make to get her out of jail.
  Juveniles should not be put in adult facilities before they are 
convicted, and nobody should be put in safekeeping and put away like 
that when they don't need to be, and they can be incarcerated in a 
juvenile facility. I hope the Governor signs the bill and makes our 
Tennessee law more current.

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