A group of Tennessee state lawmakers is demanding answers after a joint investigation by WPLN and ProPublica found that businessman Jason Crews and his company, Wayne Halfway House, kept the state in the dark about abuse and other dangerous incidents inside the youth prisons they run, despite laws requiring those reports.

Wayne Halfway House operates all three of Tennessee's highest-security youth prisons. The investigation drew on conversations with dozens of people who used to work at or stay in the facilities, plus emergency call records, internal company paperwork, and documents from the state.

"The allegations that serious physical and sexual abuse, dangerous restraints, injuries, and other critical incidents have gone unreported by WHH demand an urgent, transparent, and independently verifiable response from the Department of Children's Services," four lawmakers wrote in a letter to the department.

Wayne Halfway House has denied wrongdoing, saying it continues to meet the state's performance standards and pointing to past state audits. The Department of Children's Services said it is looking into the incidents raised by the reporting but has not committed to independent oversight.

This is not the first time lawmakers have raised concerns about oversight of youth detention facilities in Tennessee. A 2024 bill to create independent oversight of juvenile justice facilities failed after a lobbyist working for the company pushed lawmakers to leave privately run facilities out of it. Tennessee is now preparing to spend upward of $400 million on new juvenile justice facilities, raising the stakes for getting oversight right this time.

Every child in state custody deserves protection from abuse, and the public deserves a transparent accounting of how taxpayer money is spent on the companies entrusted with their safety. Sign the petition to demand the Department of Children's Services adopt independent oversight of Tennessee's youth prisons now, before more children are put at risk.