After issues in Northern Kentucky with the transportation of juvenile detainees, Gov. Andy Beshear said he expected that changes would be made to fix the problem raised by law enforcement and lawmakers.
“I promise law enforcement and other groups, we will get this system in place that doesn’t have any burden on you,” Beshear said.
Law enforcement and lawmakers raised concerns earlier this month about the burden that transportation was putting on local police officials after the Campbell County Regional Juvenile Detention Center switched to an all-female facility in December.
With the switch, local law enforcement is now tasked with driving male detainees to a facility in Ashland, which is 2.5 hours away.
Speaking on the Senate floor last week and in a letter to the governor, Sen. John Schickel (R-Union) called for changes to the new transportation system.
“This is an unworkable situation,” Schickel said, elaborating that he also sent a letter to Gov. Andy Beshear.
Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders questioned the legality of using police officers to transport detainees to and from facilities and court appearances.
In Kenton County, two juveniles (14 and 15) arrested recently on murder charges had to be transported to the facility in Ashland.
“Even assuming it’s legal for police to drive prisoners hours away, there is certainly no legal authority for requiring a municipal police officer to drive hours away to pick up juveniles and return them to court,” Sanders said. “It’s important to keep in mind some cities, and even some counties, only have one or two officers on the road at any given time. This ‘plan’ strips those smaller jurisdictions of police protection for hours on end.”
The changes to Campbell County occurred after 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.
He also ordered males and females to be housed in separate facilities. The last change, which took place recently, is that male offenders 14 years and older, charged with a serious offense, are housed at one of three high-security detention centers in Adair, Fayette, or Warren Counties.
“It simply was no longer safe to continue housing or juveniles that [the previous] way,” Beshear said, elaborating that females and males need to be housed separately.
The last thing they will be working on is changing the transportation plan, which includes doing what local law enforcement has always done when apprehending a juvenile.
First, law enforcement will take a juvenile to a local facility — it’s unclear what that facility will be at this point. There will be a separate holding facility for the 48 hours when a juvenile will have their first hearing. Then the Department of Juvenile Justice, not local law enforcement, will transport them to the appropriate facility.
“We are going to get to a point where there won’t be an impact on local law enforcement,” Beshear said.
Sen. Schickel said he’s thankful to the governor for the proposed changes.
“That’s very practical because to be transporting people long distances before you even know what’s going to happen, I mean, it just doesn’t make any sense at all,” Schickel said.
It doesn’t, however, change the aspect that a juvenile moved to a faraway facility will be cut off from their social network and family.
“Cutting that juvenile off from its family and its connection with the community is a huge deal,” Schickel said.