Kentucky State Senator John Schickel, along with close to a dozen sheriffs and police chiefs, held a press conference Tuesday at the Boone County Sheriff's Office to ask the state to reopen Northern Kentucky's only juvenile justice facility.
The Campbell Region Juvenile Detention Center in Newport became Kentucky's only all-girl detention facility in December. But six months later, the Department of Juvenile Justice temporarily closed it due to staffing issues. All of the girls in the center were transported to a different facility a few hours away in Boyd County.
The Northern Kentucky facility was originally expected to remain closed for 90 days, but with around 60 days left to go, area law enforcement agencies are saying the closure is putting too much of a strain on their resources.
Due to the absence of a youth facility in the region, juvenile offenders who are taken into custody by local law enforcement need to be transported to centers elsewhere in the state.
Florence Police Chief Tom Grau says even though the Department of Juvenile Justice has offered to provide transportation for youth offenders, the time it takes for that transportation to arrive and pick up the juvenile often takes too long.
"Your wait time is three hours on the lot for our transport team to get there," Grau told reporters. "Well, I can drive halfway there and be done with it, so why would I sit on a lot with a juvenile when I can drive all the way down there and do it in the same time?"
Sen. Schickel says the time and personnel spent by local law enforcement to simply transport juveniles is unacceptable and is making life harder for departments that are facing their own staffing shortages.
Despite pay increases for youth detention employees and recruiting efforts across the state, hiring people to fill positions has continued to be a struggle. Still, Schickel says something needs to be done.
"We're the only region that I know whose detention facility is not taking people. The other ones are all still in operation. We're a major metropolitan area across the river from a major city. We need this detention facility open," Schickel said.
Get caught up:Newport facility to become Kentucky's first and only all-girl juvenile detention center
According to the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, the Campbell Detention Center is currently at a 50% correctional officer vacancy rate. The Department of Juvenile Justice recruitment branch has attended over 30 career fairs across the state to find people to fill open positions and is running print and broadcast advertisements in Northern Kentucky as well as posting positions on social media.
The Newport facility is still partially operating as a female youth development center and is housing girls with court hearings in Northern Kentucky. The facility will reopen once staffing is secure.
