Senate Judiciary Committee advances juvenile justice bill

Senate Judiciary Committee advances juvenile justice bill February 13, 2025

Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Paducah, testifies on Senate Bill 111 during Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee meeting. The measure would improve and expand services for high acuity youth. A high-resolution photo can be found here.

FRANKFORT — A measure to improve and expand services for youth with severe behavioral and emotional challenges received approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday as part of a multi-year effort to reform juvenile justice in Kentucky.

Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Paducah, testified that the bill he’s sponsoring – Senate Bill 111 – reflects the efforts of a working group dedicated to the issue.

The legislation focuses on children who have acute mental illness and receive services from the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services while also being involved with the state Department of Juvenile Justice, he said.

“We still have kids in facilities today that are in juvenile detention centers. Although I feel the treatment has gotten better, they’re still not where they need to be and where they can receive the best care in the safest environment for their situation,” Carroll said.

He noted that the U.S. Department of Justice has been in Kentucky investigating issues involving juvenile justice detention centers.

SB 111 seeks to strengthen the process for assessing high acuity youth and develop an appropriate treatment and placement plan. If a youth at a psychiatric or pediatric teaching hospital commits or incites violence, the bill provides a process for them to be removed.

It also includes a procedure for high acuity youth to move to a lower continuum of care if the treating physician determines that the current level of care is no longer needed, Carroll said.

“Many hospitals are reluctant to take children. Under current statute, as it is interpreted, once they receive these children, they have to keep these children. If they assault staff, they still have to keep the children. Police will not remove them from the facility,” Carroll said.

SB 111 also seeks to establish a detention center dedicated to high acuity youth. It would provide the highest level of care and serve children who are currently incarcerated or detained in juvenile detention centers, Carroll said.

The bill would also require the Department of Juvenile Justice to operate at least two female-only detention centers and to separate violent and nonviolent youth.

Carroll said preliminary cost estimates would be $45 million each for the female detention centers and an additional $5 million to complete design work for the high acuity mental health detention center.

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said he advised Carroll to keep cost estimates in the bill whether or not this legislative session is opened up to budget-related legislation.

“…Everybody needs to understand implementation of this bill, which I think everyone knows is probably needed, will come with a price tag. If not this year, it will probably become next year,” he said.

Senate Minority Caucus Chair Reginald L. Thomas, D-Lexington, said new facilities would be expensive, but they are needed.

“It’s costly. It’s going to cost us a lot of money to get this right and to construct and develop facilities that are going to satisfy both our needs and the concerns of the United States Department of Justice,” he said.

The bill now heads to the full Senate.

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https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/publicservices/pio/release.html#SB111021325