KY falls short on mental health care for kids in lockup. This bill might change that.

Kentucky lawmakers have rewritten a House bill so that youths held in the state’s juvenile detention centers could have access to mental health care and addiction treatment.

“We just need to make sure that the kids who are entering the juvenile justice system for any reason get the behavioral help and treatment that they need,” state Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill, said Tuesday as the House budget committee passed an amended version of House Bill 3.

Of a half-dozen measures filed this legislative session to address chronic violence and neglect in Kentucky’s juvenile justice system, HB 3 is the only one moving through the Capitol so far.

The Herald-Leader reported last week that many of the youths held in Kentucky’s juvenile detention centers have mental health problems, aggravated by extended solitary lock-downs in their cells. But the treatment available to them often is inadequate.

Two nurses filed a whistle-blower lawsuit earlier this year against the Department of Juvenile Justice alleging abuse of youths in custody, including those with poor mental health.

Under the amended HB 3, which the full House passed hours later, the Department of Juvenile Justice would have to sign contracts with qualified behavioral health organizations to provide evidence-based behavioral health treatment or addiction treatment in the detention centers.

Youths brought into detention would be assessed by a “qualified mental health professional,” such as a psychiatrist, a psychologist or a licensed registered nurse with a master’s degree in psychiatric nursing.

Other parts of HB 3 keep its original get-tough language concerning youths charged with serious crimes and the parents of chronic truants.

It would require youths to spend up to 48 hours in custody prior to a detention hearing, not including weekends or holidays, if they are charged with a “violent felony offense,” which includes murder, manslaughter, assault, rape, kidnapping, robbery, burglary, arson and escape.

Under current law, court officials have the authority to order a youth detained or released after an arrest. Sponsors of HB 3 say they want youths charged with the most serious crimes to spend at least some time in custody prior to a detention hearing so they can be assessed for whatever services might be available for them.

The bill would require juvenile courts to regularly follow up on serious truancy cases, where youths are not attending school despite being assigned by the courts to a diversion program. A parent who intentionally fails to cooperate with a court order on school attendance could be charged with the Class A misdemeanor of unlawful transaction with a minor in the third-degree, punishable by up to a year in jail.

And the bill would waive the confidentiality of juvenile court records for youths convicted of a violent felony offense for three years so they could be discovered during criminal background checks by prospective employers and others. If youths are not convicted of another serious offense during that three-year window, then their records would be sealed.

Originally, the bill called for a five-year confidentiality waiver on juvenile records. But the primary sponsor, state Rep. Kevin Bratcher, R-Louisville, said he shortened the window to three years as a compromise with critics.

Still, several people spoke against this portion of the bill on Tuesday.

Making a juvenile criminal record public taints a young person’s future because of their immaturity, these critics warned lawmakers. Under existing law, certain people — including police and school officials — already have access to juvenile records when necessary for safety reasons, but the general public does not.

“We’re talking about kids here. So why are we interested in opening up the records of kids?” asked Kish Cumi Price, the president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, testifying at the House budget committee hearing.

“I want to make it personal,” Price told the lawmakers. “How many of you made bad decisions when you were younger — decisions that maybe you were held accountable for, some of you got away with, some you’re taking to the grave — some you won’t be held accountable for until Judgment Day. Right?”

The full House, with an overwhelming Republican majority, rejected proposed amendments by several Democrats who wanted to soften or eliminate the language on opening juvenile court records; mandatory detention for youths charged with violent offenses for up to 48 hours; and the potential jailing of parents in truancy cases.

In a House floor speech, state Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, said he is getting tired of all of the sympathy for “the perpetrators.”

Lockett spoke about a Jessamine County family whose daughter was sexually molested by a teen-aged boy who went on to victimize others at a church and an overnight camp because law enforcement did not take action and the boy’s offenses were not made public.

“My question is this, what about the victims? What about victims that some of these juveniles have hurt?” asked Lockett, a co-sponsor of the bill. “Where is their justice? Why are we not standing up for them? And I believe that this bill does that.”

Finally, the amended HB 3 would provide $39.3 million in Fiscal Year 2024 state funding, secured in a separate House bill, to pay for several changes to the juvenile justice system, including some requests made by Gov. Andy Beshear.

Here’s how that money would break down:

▪ $17.1 million for the state to retrofit, reopen and own the 40-bed Jefferson County Youth Detention Center in downtown Louisville. The center, previously owned by the Metro Louisville government, closed several years ago. The bill also has $2 million in one-year operational costs to run the center.

▪ $4.5 million for continued improvements to a juvenile detention center in the Louisville suburb of Lyndon. This suburban facility is meant to hold younger and lower-security youths than the one in downtown Louisville.

▪ $9.6 million to help pay for additional staff that are necessary for the state’s juvenile detention centers, which have struggled to hire enough employees. Beshear recently raised the starting pay for youth workers — the security officers at detention centers — to $50,000.

▪ $5.8 million in transportation costs for moving youths between the state’s juvenile justice facilities and their home counties, which can be hours away.

Beshear, a Democrat who stands for re-election in November, has been on the defensive in recent months following riots and assaults at several DJJ facilities around the state.

The Herald-Leader has reported that chronic under-staffing at DJJ for years has resulted in an atmosphere of violence and neglect, with both employees and youths saying that they don’t feel safe. In some cases, facilities have kept youths locked up in their cells as a management tool.