Memphis teen to be housed in empty prison wing after months in solitary confinement

A Memphis teen who spent months awaiting trial in solitary confinement at a Nashville prison is days away from moving to an empty wing of a different prison.

Typically prison wings house 128 inmates. But for now, 16-year-old "safekeeper" Teriyona Winton will have the entire wing at the Women's Therapeutic Residential Center to herself.

"This is an anomaly," said Neysa Taylor, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Correction.

More: Special Report: Alone and afraid, Tennesseans not convicted of a crime spend months in solitary

State law forbids housing juveniles within sight or sound of adult inmates. The department's solution for Winton, charged with the 2017 killing of 17-year-old Deago Brown, was solitary confinement.

Taylor said Winton will have significantly more time out of her cell and additional educational opportunities at the West Tennessee prison, located about an hour outside of Memphis.

"I think we’ve made tremendous strides in trying to accommodate this individual," Taylor said.

Josh Spickler, an attorney representing Winton, said it's not enough.

"Children have absolutely no place in adult prisons. None. The Department of Correction should stop accepting children transferred from Shelby County," Spickler said in an email Tuesday morning.

"These children are being abandoned by the Shelby County Juvenile Court and sheriff, the very institutions charged with their rehabilitation and care. This practice needs to stop today."

The department's actions follow a joint investigation from The Marshall Project and USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee into the practice of safekeeping.

The investigation found from 2011 to 2017, more than 320 Tennesseans awaiting trial were declared safekeepers. The program allows jails to send people not convicted of crimes to state prisons, where policy dictates they are housed in solitary confinement.

Many have physical or mental illnesses but remain in their cells 23 hours a day, waiting weeks or months for their trials.

More: Gov. Bill Haslam: 'Doesn't make sense' to house juveniles not convicted of a crime in solitary confinement

Winton spent months in solitary confinement

Winton moved between jail and prison in Tennessee after she was declared a safekeeper last fall. From October through early February she spent almost every minute of the day in a cell at the Tennessee Prison for Women, a Nashville prison 200 miles from her home in Memphis.

Later in February, a Shelby County judge ordered her returned to the local jail after Winton's lawyers initiated legal proceedings. However, the judge later reversed his decision, despite Shelby County not requesting Winton be taken back to the prison.

More: Judge orders 16-year-old girl can remain at Shelby County Jail East pretrial

In the March 12 order, Criminal Court Judge Mark Ward wrote that he had reflected on his previous order and decided his initial ruling was incorrect. Despite the ruling, Spickler says Winton has remained in the Shelby County jail.

In a court filing Friday from the department suggesting the move, department attorney Kelly Young states the Women's Therapeutic Residential Center was not available to accommodate Winton until March 13, when Young contacted the Shelby County prosecutor's office about the possibility.

However, state prison records show the Women's Therapeutic Residential Center has remained at roughly 75 percent capacity for months, with 282 beds open at the facility in October.

Taylor said those beds were open, but the department did not realize it could house Winton at the facility until after reorganizing where inmates are housed at the prison. That reorganization at the facility, a prison that has undergone substantial transformation in the last two years, was completed recently, she said.

Winton should be moved to the Women's Therapeutic Residential Center by the middle of next week, Taylor said.

More: Tennessee Senate committees 'looking into' state safekeeping laws, says senate leader's spokesman

Judge: Solitary confinement policy 'arbitrary'

In his decision to send Winton back to the Nashville prison, Ward questioned how the Tennessee prison system houses safekeepers.

"While Ms. Winton's living conditions are far superior in the Tennessee Prison for Women than they are in the Shelby County Jail, those conditions could be greatly improved if the TDOC would rethink this arbitrary policy and classify safekeeping prisoners on an individualized basis," Ward wrote.

He's one of several Tennessee officials questioning the policies and laws that regulate the safekeeping program.

More: Tennessee prison chief requests 'safekeeping' review; policy puts pretrial detainees in solitary confinement

Department of Correction Commissioner Tony Parker told lawmakers Monday the department's legal team is reviewing the policy "to try and find ways to be as less restrictive as we can."

The review comes after Gov. Bill Haslam previously said it "doesn't make sense" to house juveniles not convicted of crimes in solitary confinement at adult prisons.

State lawmakers, including Senate corrections subcommittee Chairman Ed Jackson, said they continue to review safekeeping laws and policies.

Reach Dave Boucher at dboucher@tennessean.com or 615-259-8892 and on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.