NCJ Number
197420
Journal
Journal for Juvenile Justice and Detention Services Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Dated: Fall 2001 Pages: 93-104
Date Published
2001
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article describes how Kentucky successfully transformed its juvenile justice system into a balanced and comprehensive continuum of services, with attention to the circumstances before and after reorganization.
Abstract
In the spring of 1995, juvenile residential programs in the State's 12 institutions sparked a complaint and subsequent investigation by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department. A review by that office found that all of the facilities failed to meet the constitutional and statutory rights of juveniles as required in the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. In December 1995, Governor Brereton Jones signed a consent decree that required the State to take significant steps to improve the programs in residential facilities. The critical areas noted in the decree included abuse of juveniles through an overuse of isolation and a lack of timely investigation of staff abuse of juveniles; poor education programs; poor mental health programs; inadequate medical services; poor aftercare and community follow-up; and inadequate staffing ratios and training. Incoming Governor Paul Patton, who campaigned on the need to make serious changes in juvenile justice, decided that all juvenile justice programs should be moved from the Department for Social Services to a separate department within the State's criminal justice arena. HB 117 was developed and passed during the 1996 General Assembly. This legislation provided for a Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) with the responsibility for providing a continuum of services for delinquent youth. Such services would include prevention, detention and alternatives to detention programs, residential and community-based services for adjudicated delinquents, aftercare programs, and such other services or programs that would be directed toward reducing delinquent behavior. One of the first priorities of the new DJJ was to address the issues in the consent decree. This article describes progress that has been made in staff training and development, treatment and mental health services, education and vocational services, health services, aftercare services, classification, protections from abuse and mistreatment, quality assurance and ombudsman, a statewide juvenile detention system, juvenile delinquency prevention efforts, juvenile services in the community, and compliance with the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act and alternatives to detention. Future priorities for DJJ are listed.