Beshear says KY will reopen troubled juvenile detention center in Jefferson County

The Jefferson Regional Juvenile Detention Center in suburban Louisville will reopen next week after a two-month closure, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.

The Jefferson County facility, like others operated by the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, has struggled to function despite inadequate staffing and repeated youth violence. Local residents complained last year about several incidents that occurred, including fires and escapes into the surrounding Lyndon neighborhood.

The facility was closed in November after a fire alarm test raised safety concerns, Beshear said at a Capitol news conference. Over the past two months, he said, improvements have been made not only to the fire safety system but also to the doors and locks, which sometimes failed properly to secure and contributed to breakouts.

“We’ve acted. And we will continue to act,” the governor said. “We will continue to take steps to make this into a safe system where we can protect not only youth but our staff that have been assaulted numerous times.”

While the suburban Louisville facility was closed, DJJ diverted those youths to other centers, chiefly to the Adair Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Columbia, which has seen its own documented problems with violence and neglect.

According to internal reports, on Jan. 23, there were 33 Jefferson County youths in DJJ detention elsewhere around the state.

Beshear said the Jefferson County facility will be limited at first to 10 male youths either younger than age 14 or charged with a lower-level offense. As the other two living units are upgraded and reopened, 20 more male youths will be housed there, he said.

DJJ central office leadership will work at the facility until a new superintendent and staff can be hired, Beshear said.

Last summer, the Jefferson County facility reported an average daily population of 30 youths. Serious morale problems afflicted both the youths — for whom assaults were an issue — and the staff, the facility reported.

“Staff morale appears to be low at JRJDC currently,” the superintendent wrote in a monthly report last summer to the DJJ central office in Frankfort.

“Staff (absentee) call-ins have increased, and another youth worker has quit. Staff are being overworked due to shortages. Staff shortages pose safety and security issues, especially when our population is high.”

Beshear has recently enacted several policy changes at DJJ. Among them, he has dramatically raised the starting salaries for youth workers at the detention centers to $50,000, to help with recruitment and retention, and he has authorized the staff to defend itself with pepper spray and tasers.

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