Three weeks after Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear was reelected in 2023, big changes were rolled out at the Campbell Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Newport. Starting Nov. 29, state officials announced, only males would be housed at the Newport facility, at least until further notice.
It was the third major change announced for the Campbell County center in 11 months. In June, state officials announced girls housed at the former female-only facility would be moved to the state’s regional juvenile detention center in Ashland. The Newport facility had only been an all-female center for six months when the change was announced.
Low staffing levels “due to the competitive local labor market” were cited as the reason for the move to Ashland in a June 16 memo from the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice. But the series of rapid overhauls over the past year at the Campbell County facility are glaring in the light of a 2023 independent audit indicating ongoing problems — including understaffing, use of force, and questionable use of isolation — at the state’s eight juvenile detention centers, including the one in Newport.