Senator Whitney Westerfield of Hopkinsville is gearing up for a lot of legislation in the 2023 session of the Kentucky General Assembly that begins in early January, and he says something that badly needs to be addressed are the issues in the Department of Juvenile Justice.
Actions have already been taken to try and alleviate the safety issues that plague the juvenile detention facilities—such as relocating offenders with more violent charges and creating an all-female center—but Westerfield says more needs to be done involving staffing shortages and plethora of other problems, some of which have resulted in riots and injuries.
He says he heard in committee a year ago that the department was badly short staffed, and that problem has only gotten worse since then.
The senator says someone needs to be held accountable for the failure of leadership in the department, as the issues have been reported by the facilities for months.
It’s not a budget year this session, but Senator Westerfield some amendments to the existing budget to put in adequate funding for the Department of Juvenile Justice to help provide them with pay for staff recruitment and retention, increased safety measures, proper tools and more to help keep staff and the juveniles house there safe.