KY Senate approves mental health center for juveniles in detention, funding uncertain
Republished from Kentucky Lantern
The Kentucky Senate has unanimously advanced a bill to formalize treatment protocols for youth in the Department of Juvenile Justice system (DJJ) who have “high acuity” needs — including building a mental health detention center.
Senate Bill 111 defines a “high acuity” youth as “a child who has been determined by a clinical professional, following a behavioral assessment, to need an environment and specialized treatment capable of addressing manifest aggression, violence toward persons or property destruction.”
The mental health facility, which sponsor Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Paducah, called the “key component” of the bill, would be located at Central State Hospital in Louisville. A fiscal note estimates the price of designing it at around $5 million, “which will ultimately determine the construction costs to complete the facility.”
The bill also calls for the construction of two female-only detention facilities, though a floor amendment delays that until a budget session, which the legislature holds in even numbered years. Those facilities would cost about $90 million.
Senate Bill 111 passed the Senate Judiciary committee the day before Valentine’s Day.
Sen. Keturah Herron, D-Louisville, called for a continued look at DJJ and said the overall “lack of care and consistency and stability” in the department could be contributing to behavioral problems in the centers.
Reports of violence in Kentucky’s juvenile justice system regularly made headlines in 2023, including a riot in Adair County during which a girl in state custody was allegedly sexually assaulted and an attack on employees at a youth detention center in Warren County. The department has also faced persistent staffing issues and been the subject of considerable legislative attention and has been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
“The kids are going to respond to the environment in which they’re in,” Herron said. “I think that we have a huge responsibility to continue to analyze, review and look at, from the top to bottom, the needs of our kids who are justice-involved. And it’s not just the kids who are in facilities, but it’s also the kids who are in communities, the kids when they’re coming home to reentry.”
A compromise — for now
Carroll filed this legislation last year, too. He believes part of the reason it was unsuccessful was “the cost associated with the two female detention centers,” which amounted to about $90 million.
A post-committee edit of the bill removes the two centers for females and instead requires DJJ to “operate a regional model of juvenile detention facilities which shall safely segregate violent offenders … from nonviolent offenders.”
On the Senate floor, Carroll said establishing two female detention centers — in Central and Western Kentucky — is still the goal.
The floor amendment that he filed, he said, “does not mean that we are moving away from that plan.”
“It simply means that this is a non budget year, and we will look at avenues to move this provision forward during a budget cycle,” he said. “Right now (there is) a $90 million price tag on these two facilities, and we will continue to work in that direction. Hopefully we will finalize plans for that in the upcoming session.”
Carroll foreshadowed this compromise when the bill was discussed in committee. At that time, he said he would consider compromising on the female detention facilities to make sure the mental health facility made it through the legislature.
“If we are looking at the care of the females, and we are looking at the distance that counties have to travel to house female offenders, the model that we have set forth, I believe, is the correct solution,” he said at that time. “However, if the cost of that causes this bill to die, I’m willing to remove that provision from the bill to ensure that we get the mental health process in place to address these issues within DJJ.”
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said during the committee discussion that he advised Carroll to keep the fiscal note even though this is not a budget year.
“Whether or not we open up the budget this session becomes a question, but 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 come next year,” Stivers said. “That portion of construction may need as we go through the process, need to be taken out until we do open up the budget.”
SB 111 can now go to the House for review.
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