LMPD chief says Louisville juvenile detention center needs to be built ‘as quickly as possible’

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Louisville Metro Police chief Paul Humphrey said Louisville's planned juvenile detention center needs to be built "as quickly as possible."

Humphrey joined police chiefs from Lexington and Bowling Green in Frankfort Wednesday for a discussion with lawmakers focused on crime and community policing. The chiefs discussed violence prevention, mentoring programs and ways lawmakers can support law enforcement agencies across Kentucky.

The facility Humphrey referenced is the former Jefferson County Regional Youth Detention Center in downtown Louisville, which closed in 2019 because of staffing, safety and budget concerns. In 2023, Kentucky lawmakers allocated nearly $40 million to renovate and reopen the center as a state-run facility.

Once completed, the detention center is expected to have 64 beds — roughly triple its previous capacity — and house "high-level male juvenile offenders." State officials have said the facility is expected to reopen next spring.

Humphrey said that timeline is still too slow given Louisville’s ongoing juvenile crime challenges.

"It absolutely needs to get built as quickly as possible," Humphrey said.

Humphrey said the lack of a local juvenile detention center creates multiple problems when teens are arrested. Juveniles are sent to facilities in other parts of the state, or straight home, making it harder for city counselors, clergy members and other advocates to intervene.

"They are getting the message that there are no consequences because of the turnover and putting them back out on the streets," Humphrey said. "...It’s unfair they have to travel as far as they do and be away from their family, be away from their representation and then have to get on a bus at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning to go to court."

Until the center reopens, Louisville will continue relying on out-of-county facilities for juvenile detention.