An independent review of Kentucky’s Department of Juvenile Justice’s detention facilities released Wednesday found that several of the department’s policies – including those surrounding discipline – lack clarity and consistency.
The Office of the Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts released a full performance review assessing the DJJ’s Detention Division, as well as conditions in the department’s eight detention centers that house juveniles alleged of committing crimes before their trials.
The auditor’s office contracted with CGL Management Group, a criminal justice consulting firm, following a request from the General Assembly last summer. The firm’s report listed several key findings, including that:
- DJJ's policies and procedures for isolation are inconsistently defined, applied and in conflict with nationally recognized best practices.
- DJJ's use of force practices are inconsistent with national best practices and poorly deployed and defined. The introduction of chemical agents (like pepper spray), tasers and other security control devices has been done without a policy in place.
- DJJ lacks a clear, evidence-based behavior management model for managing youth in the detention division.
- DJJ's juvenile detention facilities are understaffed. This understaffing fuels high levels of overtime which can negatively impact recruitment and retention.
- DJJ's Detention Division lacks a unified strategic direction. This lack of direction permeates to the detention facilities where inconsistent practices are implemented.
The review also found that the department has not operationalized most of the findings from a 2017 report by the Center for Children’s Law and Policy, which cost around $130,000.
“I am alarmed by the findings of this report, but I am hopeful this will provide clear direction for the numerous improvements needed within our juvenile justice system and open the door for accountability and action within DJJ,” Auditor Allison Ball said in a release.
According to the independent review, DJJ detention staff were allowed – and trained – in March 2023 to carry pepper spray. However, no official DJJ policy on the use of pepper spray has been issued, with existing policies still prohibiting the use of chemical restraints.
Between March and November of 2023, pepper spray was used in 65 instances across five juvenile detention facilities, including 41 times at Adair Regional Detention Center. The review found that the annualized rate of pepper spray deployment per youth at the Adair facility was more than 73 times the rate of pepper spray use at adult federal prisons.
CGL’s report also outlines risks associated with the use of isolation in juvenile detention, including increased risks for mental health issues, self-harm and recidivism. While DJJ policy states that isolation shall “never be used as a punishment or disciplinary sanction,” a separate policy outlines procedures for the use of isolation in juvenile centers. Across all eight detention centers, the report found nearly 1,600 instances of isolation between January and October 2023, an average of nearly 200 a month across the board.
The report recommends only using isolation in specific cases, including for those who are an immediate safety threat to themselves or others and for medical reasons such as an infectious disease outbreak.
Staffing is a persistent issue within the facilities, the report found. In addition to issues with staffing correctional officers, the review also noted a lack of licensed mental health staff to meet the needs of the youth in the DJJ system. While the independent firm also noted that staffing levels were improving during their review period, it still found “significant” vacancy levels at the institutions.
The report comes following a series of violent incidents in the past two years at juvenile detention facilities. Former DJJ Commissioner Vicki Reed, who was the fifth leader of the department since 2018, resigned on Jan. 1.
