Lawmaker expresses urgency in changes to Department of Juvenile Justice
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — After a series of debates, Governor Andy Beshear and Attorney General Daniel Cameron continue to tackle key issues just two weeks ahead of Election Day.
In addition to abortion rights and teacher shortages, among the most fiercely debated issues, the handling of the Department of Juvenile Justice.
“I can’t think of something that has failed more than the Department of Juvenile Justice in Kentucky in the last three or four years, it has just, it’s not a safe place to be,” says Kentucky State Representative, Kevin Bratcher.
Bratcher adding, “I have had judges in our informal meetings that would come to us and say I have a juvenile that I need to send to a facility because he or she is dangerous to be back on the streets. But it, it is so bad to send them to D JJ facility. I don’t know what to do with them.”
On Monday, both candidates voiced their stances regarding DJJ.
“I inherited a AD JJ system, that was broken. I took action, we separated girls from boys.We now have a different facilities based on the level of crime. Someone’s accused. “On the lower level facilities, we’re having almost no disruption at all and we’re getting all of those services,” said incumbent Andy Beshear, on Monday’s KET debate.
Meantime, his opponent, Republican Candidate Daniel Cameron saying, “whether it’s our juvenile facilities which we’ve seen under this governor, too many instances of sexual assault and other, bad instances, whether it’s at the Adair County facility or the Campbell County facility, these challenges abound and what the governor didn’t say to you is that he’s held anybody accountable. The folks that have been in those offices, at D JJ are still in those offices. He hasn’t fired a person, and when I’m the next governor, we’re gonna clean house.”
Representative Bratcher has helped bring forth several bills during the last legislative session to help aid in the woes of the department.
Bratcher says more needs to be done, to help those currently in the facilities.
“It’s just really frustrating as a legislator to see this because, you know, we represent the taxpayer, we represent the people of Kentucky and they expect a lot better than what they’re getting in this area. One of, one of my suggestions has been to this committee, the oversight committee is that we make a surprise visit without telling anybody that we’re coming and, somebody told us, well, they won’t let you in. So, you know, it’s just a mess. and, we’ll just, hopefully we’ll see what happens in two weeks,” he says.
The next legislative session will start on January 2nd of 2024.
