LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When teenagers in Louisville are detained, there's no longer a city-run facility for police to take them, but a new proposed center would change that.
On Monday night, the Metro Council Budget Committee approved $3 million over three years for what the city's Youth Transitional Services department calls a 'youth transfer processing center,' where kids in custody can wait -- supervised -- until a judge determines next steps.
It's part of more than $42 million in public safety funding included in the second round of ARP funds. The full Metro Council will vote on the proposal on Thursday.
For months, the oversight has been police officers' responsibility, taking them away from patrol for hours at a time.
This all comes as Louisville's youth detention services facility downtown closed at the end of 2019 due to budget cuts. Right now, the closest alternative is the Louisville Day Treatment Center on La Grange Road, 20 minutes from downtown. The state-run facility has 16 available beds.
Any other facilities are outside Jefferson County, potentially far away from juveniles' families.
The youth transfer processing center is the city's alternative, with the goal to hire five court sworn officers to do the job instead of police, freeing them up to focus on patrols.
Some, like retired juvenile court Judge David Holton feel this is much needed. He believes it will help allow more police to focus on patrol and solving the growing issues of youth violence and shootings.
"This problem was created by the mayor and Metro Council, and the mayor and the Metro Council need to fix this problem," Holton said. "Rather than having the officers sit with the kids for four or six hours, there needs to be a place to take them like there used to be."
Others, like Kentucky Youth Advocates Executive Director Terry Brooks, are afraid this will make intervention efforts an afterthought. He believes just creating another holding facility is risky.
"Easy solutions do not solve complex problems," said Brooks.
He suggests reformative justice and youth development centers would be better long-term fixes.
"Get to the heart of 'What's going on with you?' How can we put you on the right path," Brooks said.
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