A Louisville Metro Council member is accusing the state of “dragging its feet” on reopening the downtown Youth Detention Center.
District 22 Council Member Kevin Bratcher, a Republican, is sponsoring a resolution that calls on Gov. Andy Beshear and the Department of Juvenile Justice to expedite the renovations and “provide clear timelines, transparency in planning, and coordination with local officials to ensure that the facility is safe, secure, and responsive to the needs of Louisville’s youth and families.”
Louisville Metro shuttered the Jefferson County Youth Detention Center in 2019 amid budget cuts. That led to officers having nowhere locally to take kids accused of crimes or status offenses, like habitually skipping school. Officers would have to spend almost an entire shift accompanying a kid through a screening by a judge and court-designated worker. They may also have to arrange transport to facilities as far away as Adair County, a two hour drive.
“And usually what just happens is that child is released back into the community,” Bratcher said. “There are some situations where everybody can agree that would be a good thing, but the concerning part I have on this is that that happens too much.”
Housing kids so far away also makes it hard for parents, clergy or mentors to visit them and try to intervene, said Bratcher, who previously served in the state House of Representatives.
In 2023, Bratcher successfully led an effort in the Kentucky General Assembly to set aside nearly $40 million to renovate and reopen Louisville’s detention center. His hope at the time was that the facility would be ready to go in the summer of 2024. Now, though, state officials are saying the projected opening isn’t until spring 2027.
“To me, that’s just too long,” Bratcher said. “I like to say this: ‘Let’s imagine there’s a dam outside the city of Louisville, and if it breaks, the whole town is going to flood.’ I think that’s the kind of emergency that we should be treating this with.”
Bratcher’s resolution calling on the state to speed up renovations has received bipartisan support. On Wednesday, the resolution passed out of the Public Safety Committee with a unanimous recommendation to the full council to pass it.
District 3 Council Member Shameka Parrish-Wright, a Democrat and progressive activist, said during the meeting that she agreed with her colleagues that reopening the facility is necessary to ensure public safety and deter future crimes.
She said she also hopes the new facility could offer opportunities for rehabilitation.
“I’m just making sure we know that these are short-term ways to deal with long-standing issues and root causes,” Parrish-Wright said. “I’m not in disagreement that something needs to happen soon.”
District 1 Council Member Tammy Hawkins, who chairs the Democratic Caucus, has also signed onto the resolution as a co-sponsor.
Bratcher said Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg’s administration has committed to providing “wrap-around services” to the kids who will be housed at the new detention center, including access to clergy and counselors.
In a statement to LPM News, Morgan Hall, communications director for Kentucky’s Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, argued that Louisville Metro delayed construction by taking two years to transfer the deed for the Youth Detention Center property to the state.
“As the General Assembly recognized and required in House Bill 3, the design and construction of the Louisville Youth Detention Center was contingent on the completed transfer of the property deed from Louisville Metro to the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” Hall said.
Once the facility reopens, it will have 64 beds and will be used to house high-level male offenders, she said.
Last September, the state announced it was moving kids accused of low-level crimes in Louisville to Campbell County in order to renovate and expand a separate detention center in Lyndon. Officials said the facility was not up to standards.
The Jefferson Regional Juvenile Detention Center, as the Lyndon facility is called, is slated to open next fall.
