A federal judge has ordered the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice to provide records to independent state watchdogs investigating alleged abuse at one of its juvenile detention centers.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove ruled that the Kentucky Protection and Advocacy Services Division is entitled to records involving two teens allegedly harmed by staff last year at the Adair Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Columbia.
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Youths told Protection and Advocacy staff during a tour last October that guards pepper-sprayed one teen in the back of the head while he walked away from a fight, and forced another to wait two days for medical treatment after suffering broken bones in his arm and wrist during a separate altercation.
However, the Department of Juvenile Justice refused to release those records unless the youths signed authorization forms.
Protection and Advocacy filed a lawsuit on Nov. 4 in U.S. District Court in Frankfort, arguing it should not need signed permission to access records from the juvenile detention center.
The agency said federal law mandates its role in protecting youths in state custody. It also argued the two 16-year-olds have “mental health disabilities,” which could limit their ability to give consent, and that they rely on the Department of Juvenile Justice for their safety, making them less likely to request an outside investigation.
“If I were a young person in that situation, you know, it would give me pause,” Jeff Edwards, director of Protection and Advocacy, told the Herald-Leader on Monday. “I wouldn’t want to alienate the people that are responsible for me.”
Van Tatenhove issued a preliminary injunction allowing Protection and Advocacy to obtain records related to the two teens at the Adair County facility.
However, the judge declined to grant a permanent injunction that would give the watchdog agency unrestricted access to records for future investigations across the state. That issue remains unresolved in the ongoing lawsuit.
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Still, the judge said Protection and Advocacy “has demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits.”
Addressing the Department of Juvenile Justice’s privacy concerns, the judge noted that Protection and Advocacy must follow the same confidentiality rules, so those concerns do not apply.
Edwards said the agency is reviewing its next steps.
“We are evaluating what all the options are and what’s going to be best for children that DJJ is responsible for,” Edwards said.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Juvenile Justice, Morgan Hall, said the agency will comply with the court order.
“As previously stated, this lawsuit could have been avoided had Protection and Advocacy provided releases signed by the respective juveniles authorizing production of youth records,” Hall said. “This is a standard process which the Department of Public Advocacy, which P&A is housed under, has repeatedly complied with in the past.”
The U.S. Department of Justice is also investigating Kentucky’s juvenile detention facilities for potential civil rights violations, following years of critical reports, a harsh state audit and multiple lawsuits from former residents and employees alleging mistreatment.
Most recently, the Herald-Leader reported that juvenile detention centers continue to face staffing shortages, and that staff frequently skip required safety checks on youths in their cells and then falsify observation logs to conceal the lapses.
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