Lawsuit claims teen held in isolation, assaulted and ridiculed by staff in Kentucky juvenile facility

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A federal lawsuit filed this week claims a juvenile female was held in an unclean isolation cell for several weeks, physically assaulted, ridiculed by staff and denied treatment for a mental breakdown inside the Adair County Youth Detention Center last year.

The lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court, claims a nurse wanted to check on the teen but was told not to by one of the youth detention staffers who allegedly said, "it only makes it worse."

And while two nurses told the center's superintendent and state officials about the conditions, nothing was done, the suit says.

In addition, the suit claims the teen's cell was not cleaned, and the smell became an ongoing joke for staffers, including one who made a comment on her Facebook page under a meme saying, "bro, until you can walk past door 26, you don't get to laugh."

This is at least the third lawsuit against the youth detention center in the last year, including one earlier this month claiming children were held in isolation for weeks at a time, defecating in their cells, having their medicine withheld and being put in illegal restraint holds as staffers falsified incident reports to hide the suffering.

The detention center has also faced scrutiny from a Nov. 11, 2022, riot in which several young people and staff were wounded. A girl in custody was allegedly sexually assaulted and at least two guards were taken to the hospital with injuries.

After the riot, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear mandated changes in the juvenile justice system. Some of those changes included opening a juvenile jail for girls only, separating teen inmates by the seriousness of their crimes, hiring a security director for juvenile justice and creating a compliance division.

In the most recent lawsuit, an attorney claims that the nurse did try to help the teen, who was showing signs of a mental breakdown, but was denied entry by a staffer who said the child was "not complying" with orders and that providing her any attention would "only make things worse."

The suit claims that when the teen begged for help, reaching her arms through a small flap in the door, a staffer violently twisted them and shoved the flap closed.

The nurse reported the incident to the detention center's superintendent Tonya Burton, and asked that x-rays be taken on the teens hands, but Burton did not do anything, according to the lawsuit.

On July 9, 2022, four weeks after the juvenile was locked up, a Department of Juvenile Justice nurse administrator sent an email to Burton and other officials saying the treatment of the child was "inhumane, the smell is horrid and '[e]veryday that she is in that dark filthy room, she has less chance of returning to us," the suit claims.

On July 18, the teen was naked in her cell and had not eaten for days but when questioned by a nurse about her mental ability to refuse food, Burton smiled and said "she's with it," according to the lawsuit.

The teen was taken to University of Kentucky hospital on July 26 but was allegedly not allowed to stay because she was incarcerated in the juvenile facility. She remained in solitary confinement into August, staying in isolation for a total of 27 days, often not wearing clothes, showering or eating.

The lawsuit, which names several Adair County youth detention center employees and state officials as defendants, is seeking a jury trial and monetary damages.

Lexington attorney Gregory Coulson, who is representing the teen, said in a statement:

"We look forward to letting a jury determine whether depriving a child of medication, locking her in solitary confinement for 27 days, in a room that reeked so badly that it was described as unbearable, and the myriad other acts committed against her were consistent with her constitutional rights. Particularly because this occurred while medical staff begged to help her and sounded the alarm regarding her treatment. This inhumanity toward a child they acknowledge to be mentally ill is inconsistent with who we are as a society."

A spokeswoman for the state Justice and Public Safety Cabinet denied the allegations but said the teen suffered from severe mental illness and should not have been placed in a detention facility "because of conduct arising from their illness."

Morgan Hall, communications director for Kentucky's Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, said the department tried "every alternative to have (the teen) removed from detention and placed in a suitable healthcare facility" but was denied because of the child's "aggressive behavior."

The "administration has highlighted this problem many times before legislative committees, and both DJJ and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services issued a request for proposal to provide psychiatric services to juveniles, but neither received a response," she said in a statement.

When the juvenile turned 18, the department filed an involuntary commitment petition alleging that she was mentally ill and posed a danger to herself or others, Hall said.

Hall also said Gov. Andy Beshear’s budget proposal "provides funding to establish a facility to provide residential psychiatric treatment for juveniles who need it and would otherwise be placed in detention."

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Lawsuit claims teen held in isolation, assaulted and ridiculed by staff in Kentucky juvenile facility