Agencies across Kentucky are preparing to institute a round of reforms to the state’s juvenile justice system in the coming months.
In addition, a legislatively mandated juvenile justice oversight council met for the first time Thursday to begin assessing where agencies are in the process.
Legislation passed earlier this year by the General Assembly seeks to slow down the court process for so-called “status offenders,” such as habitual truants. With research showing the state spends up to $100,000 per bed in juvenile detention facilities, lawmakers instituted the reforms to try to keep those low-level offenders from going behind bars.
"We hope and expect it'll have a much better effect not just on the court system, not just on costs and dockets, but on the life and trajectory of that child and that family, and hopefully preventing them from becoming the future adult offenders that make their way into circuit courts all over Kentucky," state senator and reform advocate Whitney Westerfield told cn|2 Pure Politics.
Westerfield says he expects some tweaks to the legislation in the coming session.
