Committee advances bill on high-acuity juvenile offenders February 12, 2026 Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Paducah, speaks on Senate Bill 125 before the Senate Judiciary Committee. A high-res version can be found here. FRANKFORT — Legislation that would establish a comprehensive framework for ident ifying and treating high-acuity youth in Kentucky’s juvenile justice system and create a dedicated mental health residential treatment facility for them advanced unanimously in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senate Bill 125, sponsored by Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Paducah, creates a new structure for evaluating juvenile offenders to determine if they are high-acuity youth. The bill also sets out the subsequent treatment plan for those juvenile offenders should they be found to be high-acuity. “The bill sets up the structure for evaluation and placement of acute mentally ill children,” Carroll said. “It sets up a continuum of care for how to move the children up and down the system based on their need.” Mona Womack, Deputy Secretary of the Kentucky Justice Cabinet, testified with Carroll on the legislation. She said the bill fills a gap in services for youth that have significant mental issues in those instances where these youth have limited options for private care and juvenile detention would not be equipped for their needs. “This bill calls for a facility to be built specifically for youth in detention who have severe high-acuity mental health needs, allowing them to get the care they need at a secure state-run medical facility,” she said. Senate Minority Caucus Chair Reginald L. Thomas, D-Lexington, asked how accessible the newly proposed mental health facility might be to juveniles who have committed particularly violent offenses. “Here’s a hypothetical. There’s a 14-year-old boy who had a confrontation with a teacher and hauls off on her. He hits the teacher with his fist, severely injuring the teacher. What happens to that 14-year-old boy? Does he go through juvenile court and get a slap on the wrist? Is he tried as an adult? Is this facility an option for him?” Thomas asked. In reply, Sen. Carroll clarified that the bill would impact the student only if the student were deemed high-acuity. “This bill strictly impacts the situation if that young man were determined to be acutely mentally ill and needed placement in a treatment center,” Carroll said. Furthermore, he clarified that this determination had a process and that the bill did not intend to make offenders less accountable. “It sets up the process for that determination. A representative from both cabinets would get together and decide if they agreed with the clinician’s assessment, file affidavits with a judge, who would then make the final decision on where the child might be placed,” Carroll said. Sen. Matthew Deneen, R-Elizabethtown, asked how long the Juvenile Justice Department thought building a new facility might take. Randy White, Commissioner of the Department of Juvenile Justice, answered that building a new facility would take about two and a half to three years, depending on the availability and price of building materials. SB 125 now heads to the full Senate. The post Committee advances bill on high-acuity juvenile offenders appeared first on The Lexington Times. ...read more read less