An efficient and effective youth justice system holds kids accountable, helps them grow up to become contributing members of their community, and increases public safety. Kentucky has made strides in improving its youth justice system in recent years with the passage of SB 200 in 2014. This Christmas wish is from a parent of a teenager with autism who, as a 13 year old, inappropriately responded to what he perceived as a solution, and resulted [...]

Children are not little adults. We don’t expect a little league baseball player to pitch like a high school player. Young children start at the very basic level with a tee and an adult guiding them on how to hit the ball off of the tee. As they get older, year-by-year, they move up to machine pitch, then coach pitch, and eventually kid pitch. Just as we treat kids differently in sports, a presentation at [...]

Kentucky’s juvenile justice reforms have reached their first year of full implementation and we are seeing positive results in making sure the state’s response matches what youth need to keep them from committing future offenses. Now with implementation well underway, the state agencies can work on ensuring implementation is meeting the standards of SB 200’s requirements for all youth in Kentucky. An analysis by the interim Commissioner of the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) presented [...]