Riot at Ky. juvenile detention facility leaves youths, staff injured

Several juveniles and staff members were injured during what Kentucky State Police described as a “riot” at a juvenile detention facility in Adair County.

Kentucky State Police said a juvenile “assaulted a staff member, confiscated the staff member’s keys and released other juveniles from their cells” during the incident Friday night at the Adair Regional Detention Center, a maximum security facility.

State police said they were called at about 9:40 p.m., and they, along with local law enforcement, went in and restored order. Those injured were taken to a hospital, state police said in a news release.

State police are investigating, and charges against those involved are pending further investigation, the news release stated.

The Adair facility, located in Columbia, is one of eight detention centers operated by the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice. Juveniles between the ages of 11 and 18 can be sent there to serve a criminal sentence.

Juvenile Justice spokeswoman Morgan Hall said in an email Saturday that the riot “is unacceptable and the department will seek criminal charges against those involved.

“In addition to the criminal investigation led by KSP, the Internal Investigations Branch of the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet has opened an investigation. DJJ will conduct a thorough review to determine if applicable policies were followed and identify further actions that should be taken.”

Hall said the facility is on the same property as the Adair Youth Development Center, a facility where an attack by two youths in September left another juvenile inmate injured.

In that incident, one inmate attacked a staff member while another grabbed the staff member’s keys and radio. The two juveniles then attacked a third juvenile. A few days after that, one of the same two inmates made threats against a staff member and tried to take the staff member’s keys but was not successful.

Hall said the Adair Youth Development Center and Adair Regional Detention Center together can house a maximum of 80 juveniles, and the two programs share employees.

She said the juvenile justice department “is experiencing critical staff shortages across the department,” despite recent increases in pay.

“Recently, DJJ raised the salary for youth workers to the midpoint and increased the hourly rate for locality and shift premiums for facilities located in specific counties to better help recruit and retain,” Hall wrote. “This is the third effort to address youth worker compensation in a year. In December, Gov. Beshear approved a 10% raise for all security positions at DJJ, and in July, the enacted budget provided an 8% increase for all state employees.”

The riot Friday was at least the second riot at a juvenile detention facility in Kentucky in recent months. In August, youths at the Warren Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Bowling Green did a significant amount of damage to the facility on the night of Aug. 20, but no one was injured.

The Herald-Leader published a series of articles last fall about unsafe conditions in Kentucky’s juvenile justice facilities.