Louisville is years away from opening renovated juvenile detention center

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- State officials continue to make preparations to reopen Louisville's juvenile detention center, but it is still years from opening.

On Wednesday, Randy White, the Commissioner for the Department of Juvenile Justice gave an update on the DJJ in a Budget Review Subcommittee on Justice and Judiciary. He said the first phase, the schematic design for the juvenile detention center in Louisville is complete. The next step is design development, and that's now underway.

The Louisville Metro Youth Detention Services Center at 720 W. Jefferson Street in downtown Louisville, closed on Dec. 31, 2019, after it fell into disrepair.

It reopened the next day as Louisville Youth Transitional Services, an agency that provides assistance to arrested and convicted youth going to court and with transfer services to detention centers around the state.

At this point, the state approved budget to renovate the building is $38.9 million. Commissioner White said Wednesday the design renovation plan is within the budget.

The budget was originally estimated to be around $6 million when the proposal to reopen the juvenile detention center in Louisville began in November 2022, and that amount has continued to rise in the past two sessions.

State Senator Chris McDaniel, R-Ryland Heights, on Wednesday urged officials to make sure the project stays within the current allocation.

"Your design team needs to know they need to keep it within $38.9 million. That's a pretty good sum of money for the work that's being done," McDaniel said.

The renovated facility will include 18 additional cells, for a total of 64 beds -- which is triple the old facility's capacity.

"It sounds like a lot of beds, but when you get down into the operations, they can be used up quickly, but we need the flexibility," White said.

The plumbing and food service area will get upgraded, and security electronics will be modernized. A new roof is also in the plan.

"The idea is to keep Jefferson County youth in Jefferson County, close to the courts, close to their families so that we can encourage visitation and that they have the same demographics and the same societal network that they need," said Department of Juvenile Justice Commissioner Randy White.

With multiple floors, the facility is expected to house low-and high-risk male offenders. It's not clear yet if it's possible to also include a development center in the same building.

After the final design has been produced and approved, officials will issue requests for proposals from construction contractors. Once those are received and approved, actual construction is expected to take about two years.

It's not clear at this time how much money it will take to operate the renovated facility.

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