The Kids of Rutherford County - Trailer

A police officer in Rutherford County, Tenn., sees a video of little kids fighting, and decides to investigate. This leads to the arrest of 11 kids for watching the fight. The arrests do not go smoothly. From Serial Productions and The New York Times in partnership with ProPublic ...  Show more

A young lawyer named Wes Clark can’t get the Rutherford County juvenile court to let his clients out of detention — even when the law says they shouldn’t have been held in the first place. He’s frustrated and demoralized, until he makes a friend. From Serial Productions and The N ...  Show more

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 someth ...  Show more

In April 2016, 11 Black schoolchildren, some as young as 8 years old, were arrested in Rutherford County, Tenn. The reason? They didn’t stop a fight between some other kids. 

What happened in the wake of those arrests would expose a juvenile justice system that was playi ...

The lawyers settle with the county, which agrees to pay the kids who were wrongfully arrested and illegally jailed; the hard part is actually getting the kids paid. From Serial Productions and The New York Times in partnership with ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio, “The Kids ...  Show more

Wes Clark reads a telling line in a police report about how Rutherford County’s juvenile justice system really works. He and his law partner Mark Downton realize they have a massive class action on their hands. From Serial Productions and The New York Times in partnership with Pr ...  Show more