Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, Northern Kentucky Sen. John Schickel (R-Union) raised concerns about changes to the juvenile justice system in Kentucky — chiefly bringing attention to the Campbell County Regional Juvenile Justice Center that was turned into an all-female facility in December.
Schickel said he recently received a call in the middle of the night about a 17-year-old juvenile who assaulted his mother to the point where she was hospitalized.
“The police literally had nowhere to go with this dude now,” Schickel said. “We were told to transport [the perpetrator] to Ashland in the middle of the night.”
It wasn’t just the initial event that caused issues for the family and loved ones of the minor.
“The family minister wanted to go visit the child but couldn’t go the two and half hours,” Schickel said.
The Monday morning after police took the juvenile into custody, they had a court appearance scheduled, and the family and attorneys had to drive back to Ashland.
“This is an unworkable situation,” Schickel said, elaborating that he recently sent a letter to Gov. Andy Beshear to consider the situation.
In December, Beshear announced that there would be additional changes to the juvenile justice system after reports showed significant issues.
Reports over the past few months from the Lexington Herald-Leader showed that facilities across Kentucky complained to the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice that juvenile facilities were understaffed and did not comply with staffing requirements of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.
These articles came after reporting showed a series of riots and the sexual assault of a teen girl in an incident at the Adair County facility.
In response, Beshear ordered the Juvenile Justice Department to open a female-only detention center in Campbell County. Starting in December, all females between the ages of 11-18 would be housed in the Newport facility.
“By separating female and male juveniles, we are enhancing the safety of our staff and youth in state custody,” Beshear said in early December regarding what he referred to as an outdated system. “I remain committed to doing everything possible to provide health care, education, and safety to all Kentuckians – including our youth who deserve a second chance.”
The system has gone through changes before, notably around 20 years ago, Schickel said. As a former administrator of the Boone County Juvenile Jail, Schickel said that Kentucky Youth Advocates sued Kentucky, and in response, the state closed county juvenile detention centers and opened regional centers.
“The state agreed to have regional juvenile detention facilities in every part of the state,” Schickel said, “which were going to be run by the state, we begrudgingly agreed.”
In his letter to the governor, Schickel said, “when northern Kentucky counties closed their juvenile detention facilities 20 years ago, they did it with the agreement that the state would operate a regional juvenile detention facility in northern Kentucky.”
Speaking in his State of the Commonwealth address on Wednesday, Beshear said he is implementing the most significant reforms to Kentucky’s juvenile justice system in 20 years. He said he wants to raise salaries for justice employees, upgrade facilities, and change state laws.
“We are putting in higher security facilities for those charged with the most serious crimes,” Beshear said of changes to the system. “This will allow us to both keep our workers and the other youth safe and then allow lower-level offenders to access more services without disruption.”
Dr. Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, issued a statement after Beshear’s address and said that the state needs a juvenile justice system that holds kids accountable but also gives creative prevention strategies, community-based interventions when appropriate, detention facilities that offer high-quality behavioral and mental health services, and educational support.
“I am pleased to see that he [Beshear] is calling for changes in the juvenile justice system,” Brooks said. “That arena is not just problematic – it is on fire symbolically and sometimes literally. As a state, we have to reject the rising tide of voices advocating a return to regressive policies of twenty years ago. Instead, the Governor and General Assembly must architect a new system – a revolutionized system.”
While Beshear outlined his plans for change, he also noted that the state is currently dealing with a unique situation in the juvenile justice system.
“The reality is we are currently housing the most violent population in recent memory in our juvenile justice facilities,” Beshear said. “Our juvenile justice system was put in place 20 years ago. It was not designed to handle this type of trend.”
In his Senate floor comments on Wednesday, Schickel said that 90 percent of juveniles apprehended in NKY are male.
Last year in Boone County, there were 48 juvenile males taken into custody, according to Boone County Public Information Officer Phillip Ridgell for the Boone County Sheriff’s Office.
He noted that that equates to booking roughly one juvenile male per week.
When a juvenile is taken into custody — under Kentucky statute, they aren’t technically arrested — law enforcement reaches out to court-designated workers. Children are typically released to a parent if the crime isn’t severe.
But some juveniles are taken into custody and then booked in a facility. In Northern Kentucky, the Campbell County Regional Juvenile Justice Center was a facility for all minors.
In December, that facility moved to be an all-female facility. Now, male juveniles must be driven to Ashland.
“The biggest concern is, of course, the distance by which we transport,” Ridgell said.
What used to be roughly a 40-minute round trip down to Newport is now an approximately two-and-a-half hour drive to Ashland.
Bellevue Police Chief Jon McClain noted similar concerns to Ridgell’s, though the department hasn’t taken any male juveniles into custody since the facility change in December.
“I disagree with some of the work that they’re now putting on the backs of local law enforcement,” McClain said, noting he agrees with Beshear that females and males need to be in separate facilities unless it’s ensured they can be kept in different populations.
Under the executive order Beshear issued, local law enforcement are also responsible for transporting the individuals back and forth to their court dates.
There is also the option of arraigning juveniles via video conferencing, but that isn’t always the best scenario, McClain said.
McClain noted that since the regional facilities are state-run via the Department of Juvenile Justice, perhaps a solution would be to have state employees transport juveniles once they’re under state supervision.
Ridgell and McClain think there is a better solution for Northern Kentucky.
One way is to “get all the involved parties involved with making the decision, rather than just the Department of Juvenile Justice,” McClain said.
In his Team Kentucky Thursday press conference, Beshear said that his administration knew transportation was going to be an issue, but it’s something they’re working on.
As part of their plan, he said they will eventually put juveniles in a holding facility until they have their first arraignment. After that, state employees from the Department of Justice will transport the juvenile to the final facility.
“I get law enforcement concerns and we’re working on it,” Beshear said.
Clarification: In the second reference to Sen. John Schickel comments on the Senate floor, this article said they occurred on Thursday. This article is corrected to show the comments were made on Wednesday.