Kentucky’s juvenile justice system continues to have problems with its use of force and seclusion techniques, and few improvement recommendations from a 2017 state audit have been implemented, according to a report released Wednesday.
A new report from Kentucky Comptroller Alison Ball says the state’s juvenile detention facilities lack clear policies regarding the use of isolation rooms, Tasers and pepper spray, and have serious staffing problems. It also found that Juvenile Justice Department employees were using pepper spray at a rate nearly 74 times the amount used in adult federal prisons.
A federal lawsuit filed earlier this month alleges that in 2022, two teenage girls were held in isolation cells in unsanitary conditions for several weeks at an Adair County youth facility. In the same year, the detention center became the scene of a riot that began with a juvenile riot. assaulted a staff member. A separate federal lawsuit was filed this week by a woman who claims she spent a month in an isolation room at the Adair facility in 2022 when she was 17 years old.
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The auditor review was requested by the state Legislature last year.
“The current state of the Department of Juvenile Justice is a commonwealth concern and has been a legislative priority for the past several years,” Ball said in a statement Wednesday.
Kentucky Comptroller Allison Ball is seen at the Kentucky State Capitol during the swearing-in of constitutional officers on January 2, 2024 in Frankfort, Kentucky. Mr. Ball conducted an audit of the state’s juvenile detention facilities and found that they: They are disorganized, lack clear procedures, and face staffing problems. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)
Ball accused Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration of “facility-wide institutional disorganization and the resulting unacceptably poor treatment of Kentucky’s youth.” Earlier this month, Beshear criticized the Kentucky House of Representatives’ budget proposal for lacking funding to create a new juvenile justice center exclusively for women.
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The audit report, titled “Performance Review,” found that the Department of Juvenile Justice’s “segregation practices are inconsistently defined, applied, and inconsistent with nationally recognized best practices.” He said the department’s use-of-force policy was also “poorly developed and defined.”
The report said the findings of the 2017 audit remained largely unaddressed, including concerns about the overuse of solitary confinement, low standards of care and the poor quality of policy manuals.
Last year, Beshear launched a new state policy for juvenile offenders that places male juveniles charged with serious crimes in high-security facilities. The policy replaces the decades-old community system of housing youth in institutions based on where they live.
