Juvenile justice bill to add Louisville detention center passes House, with more funding
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A bill to fund a renovated and state-operated juvenile detention center in Louisville, along with stricter rules for youths charged with violent crimes, passed the Kentucky House by a wide margin Tuesday.
House Bill 3 of Rep. Kevin Bratcher, R-Louisville, cleared the chamber by a nearly party-line vote of 79 to 18 that afternoon, hours after an amended version of the bill cleared the House budget committee.
The legislation is one of the priority bills of the House Republican supermajority this session, coming after several high-profile incidents of riots and violence last year at Department of Juvenile Justice detention facilities — including an employee being sent to the hospital and an alleged rape of a detained girl — and a recent increase of youths charged with violent crimes in Louisville.
Whereas the city-operated Jefferson County Youth Detention Center closed in 2019 due to lack of funding, HB 3 would provide $17.1 million for its renovation and transfer the property to the state agency, which would operate it and prevent detained Louisville kids from being transported to centers in far-off counties.
More:By the numbers: Who are the Kentucky kids in juvenile detention and how did they get there?
The appropriation in HB 3 for this renovation was nearly doubled from an earlier version of the bill that passed a different House committee two weeks ago, with the amended bill that passed Tuesday containing four times the total funding.
Bratcher and Rep. Jason Petrie, the GOP House budget committee chairman, indicated in committee that they had worked with the administration of Gov. Andy Beshear on the changes and additional funding over the past two weeks, as the administration estimated costs for the staffing, operations and capital improvements they needed at the department's detention facilities statewide to be more than $75 million.
The version of HB 3 clearing the chamber Tuesday also includes $5.8 million for Juvenile Justice transportation costs, $9.6 million for additional staffing at its detention facilities and $4.5 million for renovations of the department's facility in Lyndon, as well as providing detained youths with Medicaid coverage for any mental health or treatment services needed.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg's administration has expressed support for the state funding the renovation of the facility and taking it over, with that funding dependent on the property being transferred to the state.
More:Juvenile justice bill to reopen Louisville detention center clears House committee
The bill also contains several changes to how youths charged with violent crimes are detained, including a maximum 48-hour detention hold on youths charged with serious violent crimes, or until they have appeared before a judge in a detention hearing.
While the previous version of HB 3 required a juvenile's criminal record to be open for five years if they are convicted or admit to a serious violent crime — and only closed again if they have not been convicted of any additional public offense in that time — the amended version passed Tuesday lowers that to three years.
Under HB 3, parents of a charged juvenile also would be forced to appear before a judge if they are found to not be cooperating with their child's diversion program, with possible criminal penalties.
Representatives of the Louisville Urban League, Mental Health America Of Kentucky, the Catholic Conference of Kentucky and the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy continued to criticize aspects of the bill in their committee testimony, particularly the mandatory holds and opening of criminal records, saying detention could have the opposite of the intended effect.
Rep. Al Gentry of Louisville was the only Democratic House member to vote for HB 3, saying that while he has issues with the opening of records for kids who make youthful mistakes, the overriding factor was his desire "to keep our kids in Jefferson County in Jefferson County," instead of being sent far from family and potential services.
More:LIST: Here's the latest on key bills from the 2023 Kentucky legislature
Bratcher responded by saying that some of the detained kids in Louisville have been charged with murder, saying "it's not a mistake, sir, it's a crime!"
While some kids may now have to spend a night or two in jail under the bill, Bratcher said "what's out there now is not working."
Disturbed by the concern for the youths charged with crimes, Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, asked: "What about the victims? Where is their justice?"
Rep. Keturah Herron, D-Louisville, who was previously a court-designated worker for detained youths in the city's system, said HB 3 was an "irresponsible" way to address the crisis in the juvenile justice system.
"We cannot spend $39 million on incarcerating teens and not spend a penny on reentry, on intervention, on prevention and on alternatives to detention," Herron said.
Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Bill to reopen Louisville youth detention center passes Kentucky House
