RSB/3/21
Sponsored by Alisha Chandra of Baylor School
This legislation was filed in the Human Services category
Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference
| 1 | BE IT ENACTED BY THE TENNESSEE YMCA YOUTH IN GOVERNMENT |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Section 1: Terms in this act shall be defined as follows. |
| 4 | a) troubled teen industry: a network of unregulated programs and facilities offering interventions |
| 5 | for adolescents facing behavioral, emotional, or psychological challenges, including wilderness |
| 6 | programs, boot camps, and therapeutic boarding schools. |
| 7 | b) youth congregate care settings: residential child care communities that consist of 24-hour |
| 8 | supervision for children in highly structured settings |
| 9 | c) teen transport/secure transport industry: involuntary transport of minors to troubled teen |
| 10 | facilities, often by ex-police officer forces known as “goons” |
| 11 | d) physical restraint: the use of a manual object or hold to restrict freedom of movement of all or |
| 12 | part of a person's body, or to restrict normal access to the person's body |
| 13 | e) mechanical restraint: applying a device or object, which a person cannot remove, to their body |
| 14 | that restricts free movement |
| 15 | f) arbitrary use: in the context of the troubled teen industry, the unjustified/unregulated use of |
| 16 | punitive, abusive techniques |
| 17 | g) seclusion: the state of being private and away from other people. |
| 18 | h) business operating license: the permission needed to operate a Tennessee business that has |
| 19 | gross annual income between $3,000 and $4,000 |
| 20 | i) non-consensual/random abduction: the forced extrication of minors from their homes by secure |
| 21 | transport agents for travel |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Section 2: Expressly outlaws all aspects of physical violence that are associated with the secure |
| 24 | transportation of minors to youth congregate care settings, included but not limited to: |
| 25 | a) non-consensual/random abduction |
| 26 | b) physical restraint during transport |
| 27 | c) blindfolding |
| 28 | d) sedation |
| 29 | e) handcuffing |
| 30 | |
| 31 | Section 3: Requires Tennessee-based secure transport companies that carry minors to youth |
| 32 | congregate care settings to explicitly document each aspect of their transportation process for |
| 33 | each client and reserves the right for representatives of the Tennessee Department of Children’s |
| 34 | Services to review this documentation, in particular if an individual brings allegations of abuse |
| 35 | and/or trauma against the transport company; |
| 36 | a) Should an individual report such abuse and the company is found to not have a record proving |
| 37 | compliance, they will face fines of up to $10,000 as well as reevaluation/revocation of their |
| 38 | |
| 39 | Section 4: Reserves the right for employees of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services to |
| 40 | conduct random inspection of secure transport companies found to be transporting children to |
| 41 | evaluate their practices (in accordance with TN Code Annotated 37-5-513 (2021)) |
| 42 | |
| 43 | Section 5: Bans arbitrary use of techniques often implemented by agents of the troubled teen |
| 44 | industry, including but not limited to: |
| 45 | a) the use of seclusion, mechanical restraints, and physical restraints that impair breathing or |
| 46 | communication |
| 47 | b) practices that involve the withholding of essential food, water, clothing, shelter, or medical care |
| 48 | necessary to maintain physical health, mental health, and general safety |
| 49 | c) acts of physical or mental abuse designed to humiliate, degrade, or undermine a minor |
| 50 | |
| 51 | Section 6: Requires that each minor at such a program shall have reasonable access to a |
| 52 | telephone, and be informed of their right to such access to maintain private, frequent contact, |
| 53 | including making and receiving scheduled and unscheduled calls, unrestricted written |
| 54 | correspondence, and electronic communications, and shall have access to existing and appropriate |
| 55 | national, State, and local child abuse reporting hotline numbers. |
| 56 | |
| 57 | Section 7: Reserves the right for employees of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services to |
| 58 | conduct random inspection of all troubled teen industry outfits, including but not limited to: |
| 59 | a) wilderness programs |
| 60 | b) boot camps |
| 61 | c) therapeutic boarding schools |
| 62 | |
| 63 | Section 8: Should the aforementioned inspection find violation of any aspect of this act or any |
| 64 | signs of physical or emotional abuse to minors, or become aware of any alleged abuse through |
| 65 | reporting, the respective program will face up to all of the following punishments: |
| 66 | further governmental investigation |
| 67 | a) fines of up to 25,000 dollars |
| 68 | b) probation of business operating license |
| 69 | c) revocation of business operating license |
| 70 | |
| 71 | Section 9: All acts or bills in conflict with this legislation are hereby repealed. |
| 72 | |
| 73 | Section 10: This bill shall take effect on May 30th, 2024. |
| 74 |