Reports: KY juvenile justice guards taunt youths, pepper spray genitals and laugh at pain
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Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice
The Herald-Leader has reported on serious problems inside the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice for more than four years.
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The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the mistreatment of youths held in detention by the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, but serious problems continued throughout last year, according to public records obtained by the Herald-Leader.
The newspaper reported this week that a 350-pound correctional captain at the state’s juvenile detention center in McCracken County was fired in December 2024 after he reportedly broke the left arms of two teen-aged boys in separate restraints last Oct. 12.
The facility’s manager and deputy manager also were fired, state officials say.
Internal investigators for the state Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, which oversees the Department of Juvenile Justice, said they also confirmed employee wrongdoing in several other cases involving mistreatment of youths.
Among the documented cases were a teen-aged boy who angrily broke his thumb when a guard’s joke went wrong, guards who laughed at an autistic boy after they pepper sprayed his genitals and a guard who opened a boy’s cell door after bedtime to start a fist fight with him.
The Herald-Leader obtained the substantiated investigative reports through the Kentucky Open Records Act.
A joke goes wrong
On May 11, 2024, a teen-aged boy broke his right thumb when he angrily punched the wall inside his cell at the Adair Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Columbia, investigators wrote.
The boy was angry because, after having been held in custody for more than three months, a correctional officer told the boy to pack his things in the next 30 minutes because he was going home.
Once the boy was packed, the officer returned, laughed at the boy and told him he was only joking, he wasn’t going home. That’s when the boy punched the wall.
Later, the officer could be heard on a security camera telling the boy he needs to learn how to take a joke, investigators wrote. They substantiated the incident as a case of “failing to provide appropriate supervision.”
The officer was fired effective June 3, 2024, but for a different incident.
On May 15, the officer came to work at the detention center after a training session while under the influence of alcohol, Juvenile Justice Commissioner Randy White wrote in the officer’s termination letter, obtained by the Herald-Leader.
Laughing at boy’s pain
On Sept. 19, 2024, an autistic and suicidal teen-aged boy who had been in custody for seven months was violently banging his head against his cell door at the Adair Youth Development Center, investigators wrote.
Guards told the boy to stop banging his head or else they would pepper spray him. But before they could open his door, the boy stopped banging his head and took off his pants to shield his face from the painful burning spray. His boxer shorts fell partway down his legs once his pants were removed.
As a result, when the guards sprayed the boy, his genitals were covered with the spray and he fell to the floor, screaming in pain.
One of the guards, a lieutenant, later acknowledged to investigators that they laughed about the boy’s anguish.
“He admitted they probably were. He stated they were laughing at some of the things (the boy) was saying and admitted it was unprofessional,” investigators wrote.
Guards escorted the handcuffed boy to the showers so he could wash the spray off himself. But the shower water was very hot — maintenance staff said the temperature was 104 degrees, which is the highest recommended for a hot tub — and the boy screamed again because the water aggravated the burning chemicals on his genitals.
The boy cried and begged for cold water, thrashing around, according to security video.
One guard told the boy, “the water does not get cold,” investigators wrote. The guard “yelled at him that if he did not stop yelling and hitting the door, he would get it again,” they wrote.
Facility staff later confirmed to investigators that they cannot control the temperature of the shower water, which is hot, they only can turn it on and off.
‘Step out here, bro’
On Nov. 3, 2024, after residents’ bedtime, a correctional officer opened the door to a teen-aged boy’s cell at the Campbell Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Newport. The officer invited the boy to walk out into the day room and physically confront him, investigators wrote.
“Step out here, bro, what you trying to do?” the officer told the boy, according to security video.
The boy stepped out of his cell, punched the officer and then retreated back into his cell.
The officer followed the boy into the cell, where a fight ensued.
A second guard stood at the doorway to the cell and watched the fight but did not intervene, investigators wrote. The second guard later told investigators the two were actively throwing punches at each other.
“I’m letting him do his thing,” the second guard explained to investigators.
After a sergeant and a captain arrived on the scene, the first officer left the boy’s cell, investigators wrote. The officer’s colleagues told investigators he never should have started the confrontation and had no business going into the housing unit after bedtime because he was assigned to a different unit.
The boy told investigators the officer punched him in the chest and neck and bit him on the arm.
The officer told investigators he came into the housing unit because he heard residents shouting, and once he was in there, the teen-aged boy “mouthed off” to him.
That’s when the officer ordered the boy’s door opened, he said.
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
