Committee advances comprehensive juvenile‑justice bill, including high‑acuity care and new female detention centers

The Kentucky Senate Judiciary Committee reported Senate Bill 111 favorably after an extended presentation by sponsor Senator Danny Carroll (Second District) and witnesses from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the Department of Juvenile Justice. The bill is intended to address treatment and placement for "high‑acuity" juveniles with acute mental‑health needs and to change placement, confidentiality, and reimbursement rules for juvenile care.

Carroll described the bill as the product of a Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) task force and stakeholder meetings that included the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS), DJJ leadership, the administrative office of courts, hospital associations and service providers. He told the committee the bill was designed to address gaps identified during Department of Justice investigations and to prepare for possible future consent decrees.

Key provisions described by the sponsor include a process to identify "high‑acuity youth" and to determine the proper treatment location; an affidavit procedure for judges to resolve placement disputes; establishment of a reimbursement rate at 200 percent of the current Medicaid rate for inpatient psychiatric hospitals and pediatric teaching hospitals serving high‑acuity youth and 50 percent of the current rate for specified outpatient services; and a process allowing hospitals to remove high‑acuity youth from inpatient settings if they commit or incite violence, with law enforcement assuming custody and placement procedures to follow.

The bill would require DJJ to operate at least two female‑only detention centers and to segregate violent and nonviolent detainees; the sponsor said the centers likely would be one in Central Kentucky and one in Western Kentucky, with a third location contingent on census patterns. The sponsor noted the construction cost is substantial: budget staff figures provided to the sponsor were $45,000,000 for each female detention center and $5,000,000 for design work for a high‑acuity detention center. Other committee members cited a $50,000,000 figure for construction discussed separately by an appropriations subcommittee; the sponsor told the committee he would consider removing the female‑center construction language if cost prevented passage of the mental‑health process changes.

Senator Carroll and Commissioner Randy White of DJJ and Secretary Eric Friedlander of CHFS participated in the presentation and question‑and‑answer. Carroll emphasized the bill creates a pathway for high‑acuity youth to move to lower levels of care when appropriate and addresses facility reluctance to admit youth who present violent behavior. Commissioner White described operational changes and confirmed the department has been directed to return to a regional model and to separate violent and nonviolent detainees as appropriate.

The bill also contains a confidentiality provision that allows release of juvenile records in limited circumstances to permit the cabinet or DJJ to defend itself in litigation when a juvenile plaintiff publicly waives confidentiality by filing suit; committee members asked for clarification and staff and DJJ explained the operational and legal reasons for that provision: to speed dissemination of identifying information in an AWOL situation and to permit the cabinet to present information in defense of civil litigation.

A motion to report the bill favorably was made and seconded (mover: Senator Wheeler; second: Senator Nimitz per the transcript). Senator Thomas and other members discussed fiscal implications; Thomas noted a recent subcommittee approved a $50,000,000 request for juvenile facility rehabilitation and indicated the $45,000,000 per female center estimate was plausible. The chair announced that "Senate Bill 11 is reported favorably with the expression of opinion the same should pass."

Committee members praised the collaborative stakeholder process and several senators said the bill represented an important step to address ongoing issues in juvenile detention and mental‑health care for youth.