A Crisis within DJJ

The Department of Juvenile Justice is in a crisis never witnessed before. Recent reports demonstrate a lack of leadership within DJJ that allows a toxic loss of morale to manifest itself. Meanwhile, executive branch officials are ignoring the needs of front-line workers who have repeatedly tried to communicate directly with them.

For two years, your legislature has received no communication from our Governor on any policy changes or additional resources needed to help him manage the DJJ. In fact, the Governor’s own recent budget proposal did not reflect the request from the Department of the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet. There are reports of assault, rioting, and even a gang rape of a minor in the state's custody. We find these reports reprehensible, and unforgivable, and the inaction from the executive branch intolerable.

“The Commonwealth needs a juvenile system that provides for our most troubled youth’s well-being and the Governor is missing the opportunity to change the path these children will travel. ”

The most immediate priority is ensuring the safety of staff members and the youth. Responsibly deploying defensive measures such as Tasers and pepper spray are but two measures to remedy the situation. Those defensive measures are appropriate only if used judiciously by properly trained adults.

Elected officials met during the interim period because of what’s at stake and are appalled at what we've uncovered.  Kids are locked away 24 hours a day and are not allowed access to basic recreation or a shower. The excuse is understaffing and that it’s simply a more convenient way to maintain order. Workforce issues are challenging but when children are denied food, water and basic self-care, we have a real problem.  We do not cast blame on overstressed and overworked facility staff, who are doing all they can with what they have.  The buck stops with facility administration, the department, the cabinet, and ultimately the Governor himself. After having discussions with those working closest with the children in the Commonwealth’s care, it seems upper management is where the problem resides.

You can't have an effective organization without effective leadership. The lack of leadership at the cabinet level and with our executive branch demonstrates that until now no one there was paying attention.  They are ignoring the problem hitting them squarely in the face and failing to fulfill their basic responsibilities. Adding security measures and a new chief of safety is an admission that no one in the DJJ chain of command is actually doing their job. At best, the Beshear administration is moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic.

From our workgroup discussions, it seems the front-line workers cry out to DJJ leadership but their pleas fall on deaf ears.

Lack of communication is apparent inside and outside the executive branch. The workgroup, with representatives from both parties and chambers, has provided immediate recommendations to quell the rioting, and still, the Governor refuses to engage directly with General Assembly leadership.  He has not even acknowledged our recommendations to mitigate the crisis.  Since the delivery of our letter to the Governor last week, there has already been another riot in Bowling Green.

“Better to send them to restore order in detention facilities than at churches on Easter Sunday.”

The Governor has finally taken a positive step many months too late in deploying Kentucky State Police troopers as a stopgap measure. Before someone gets hurt, assaulted, or killed, we implore the Governor to step out of damage control mode and communicate directly with his co-equal branches of government.  Better to send them to restore order in detention facilities than at churches on Easter Sunday.

Absent leadership, an issue becomes a crisis.  The executive branch has taken a shortsighted view of a volatile crisis and ignored the most vulnerable youth who need their support. Security aside, this administration has also ignored the mental health needs of both DJJ staff and the youth in their care as these riots, assaults and security failures have occurred. The Commonwealth needs a juvenile system that provides for our most troubled youth's well-being and the Governor is missing the opportunity to change the path these children will travel.  Rest assured, if the kids in DJJ detention are neglected long enough, they will eventually become residents of the Department of Corrections as adults.

Senator Whitney Westerfield, R-Crofton, represents the 3rd Senate District, is chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a member of the DJJ Workgroup.

Department of Juvenile Justice

After some concerning reporting on staff issues with the Department of Juvenile Justice in September the Interim Judiciary Committee heard testimony from DJJ and Justice Cabinet leadership. I had a number of questions that we didn’t have time to get to during the October Judiciary meeting so I provided them in writing and asked for responses and additional information.

While the responses were a few weeks late, they did finally arrive on Monday, December 6th. I’ve attached my questions, their answers and some of their other provided documents below:

SB200 Rebuttal

I am writing in response to the story “WDRB Investigation: New KY law contributes to rise in Louisville juvenile crime,” done by Mr. Gil Corsey. I was the sponsor of Senate Bill 200, a major 2014 juvenile justice reform law aimed at holding youth accountable, while getting youth and their families the services and programming they need to get back on track. I serve as chair of the Juvenile Justice Oversight Council monitoring its implementation. Since passage, we’ve meticulously reviewed data from across the juvenile justice system, which show better outcomes for youth and families statewide.

I took issue with a number of the points Mr. Corsey made in this story. In Jefferson County, 42% of youth who were put on diversion in CY 2016 had committed a status offense. Status offenses are behaviors that many kids need to be steered away from at one point in their youth, like truancy or tobacco possession, but they are not considered crimes for adults. The increase in diversion cases in Jefferson County is driven primarily by these status offense cases, not crimes. 

This is exactly what we want to see. Research is clear that for low-level youth, such as those committing status offenses, pulling them deeper into the system can actually produce the opposite of the desired outcome. The youth’s behavior often gets worse, not better. Instead of fixing the problem, the government ends up pulling the youth away from their family and isolating them more.

I also want to point out a problem with how Mr. Corsey categorized “serious violent offenses” in his recidivism definition. In that definition he included four different types of assault in the 4th degree, a misdemeanor crime that results in either no visible injury or only minor injury. These crimes are not included in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting category of violent offenses, and as a former prosecutor I personally do not believe they should be considered “serious, violent offenses” in the same category as crimes like robbery, rape and murder.

This recidivism definition is important to clarify because more than one-third of diverted youth who Mr. Corsey categorized as serious, violent re-offenders were charged with some form of assault in the 4th degree as their subsequent offense. If you exclude those youth from his recidivism definition, less than 4% of youth who were diverted in CY 2016 have subsequently committed a serious, violent offense. This is an extremely low recidivism rate.

I believe these data are important to clarify because examining data related to Senate Bill 200 implementation is a core component of the Juvenile Justice Oversight Council’s responsibility. We have defined performance measures to routinely track the implementation of the legislation, and we regularly receive data reports from the Administrative Office of the Courts, the Department of Juvenile Justice, and other relevant agencies charged with policy implementation. 

In examining statewide data, we have seen many positive results from Senate Bill 200 implementation. Statewide, public offense complaints (offenses that would be considered crimes if committed by an adult) have continued to decline in the years following the reforms. While we have seen an increase in diversions, we have also seen that more than 90% of youth successfully complete diversion and are kept out of the court system, and the vast majority of youth who successfully complete diversion do not reoffend. When youth are successful in diversion, it frees up time for the juvenile court to handle more serious cases and for judges to use their resources on the cases that truly pose a risk to public safety.

Finally, I want to make a critical point about Senate Bill 200: this legislation did not change any statute related to how the most serious crimes can be handled in juvenile court, or impact any juveniles who commit such serious offenses that they end up being sent to criminal court. Senate Bill 200 was designed to curb unnecessary, ineffective and costly detention for the lowest level offenders, and provide more effective community-based programs to address problem behavior. This allows the state to prioritize  scarce resources in court and in the Department of Juvenile Justice to better address the needs of youth who commit serious offenses and have significant prior history. This can improve public safety and improve outcomes for youth, which should be the ultimate purpose of Kentucky’s juvenile justice system.