Kentucky’s Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to advance a comprehensive overhaul of Kentucky’s troubled juvenile justice system that would increase staffing, improve mental health interventions, and keep youths closer to home.
The legislation – Senate Bill 162 – is based on the efforts of a legislative work group that began meeting in January to review ongoing issues in the state Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). The group met with numerous state officials from all levels of the department, including former employees, and toured facilities throughout the state during the review.
While SB 162 would not solve all the problems the group identified, it would address most of pressing issues and provide a foundation for future reforms, according to the lead sponsor Sen. Danny Carroll (R-Benton).
“You all are aware of all the issues faced by DJJ, not just over recent months, but over recent years,” Carroll told lawmakers Wednesday. “Rioting, fires, the violent rape of a young woman; another young, severely mentally ill woman confined to a cell, often naked, refusing to eat or bathe and receiving no physical or mental health care.”
He said the review found understaffing within DJJ, a culture of self-preservation at the management level, fear of retaliation on the frontlines, a lack of faith in some management personnel, sparse or no communications, and a lack of services for youth with severe mental illness.
Among many provisions in the bill, it would create a compliance division within the department and place all eight of Kentucky’s juvenile detention centers under one office with a lead supervisor who reports directly the commissioner.
The legislation also calls on the department to return to a regional model of detention that keeps youths closer to home and better segregates males from females and violent offenders from the non-violent population.
On mental health, SB 162 requires DJJ to maintain treatment options for children with severe emotional disturbances or mental illness. Other portions of the bill call for better data tracking, additional training – including for leadership – and a policy for youth workers to wear uniforms.
It also would channel millions of dollars into the system to improve salaries, expand the ranks of youth workers, upgrade security, develop an offender management system and improve diversion for youths with severe mental illness.
Committee members said changes in the DJJ population have made operations more complicated in recent years, and Carroll added that all of the issues combined with a more violent population were a “recipe for disaster.”
“That disaster has occurred repeatedly over the past couple of years. And today, even though temporary safety measures are in place, DJJ remains in a state of crisis in many areas,” he said.
Sen. Robin L. Webb (D-Grayson) said there are many cultural changes affecting justice issues, including changes to family life and gang membership.
“We’ve had a change of people that we’re serving as juveniles and the societal issues that they face and all of those things,” she said. “We’re usually slow to adapt and other states are going through the same thing.”
Webb said staffing is very important, and she also stands behind the regional model for facilities.
“Everybody in the system has got to work together to improve the system. Everybody that touches that juvenile has got to work together. And that’s why I think staffing is important,” she said.
Carroll told committee members that the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee continues to investigate the how and why DJJ ended up in crisis. The state’s Juvenile Justice Oversight Council will also continue to review DJJ over the legislative interim and make recommendations for further action next session.
In addition to Wednesday’s reform bill, the committee also advanced legislation – Senate Bill 158 – that calls for independent auditors to conduct a full performance review of DJJ’s detention facilities.
Givens, who is sponsoring SB 158, said it will help get to the core of the culture question.
Information came from a release by the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission.
