About Us

The Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice (KY DJJ) was established in 1996 with the passage of HB 117 by Kentucky's General Assembly. KY DJJ strives to promote a comprehensive array of cost-effective services for at-risk youth directed toward preventing delinquency, providing efficient rehabilitation services, and altering the rate of recidivism with appropriate aftercare, while minimizing risk to the community. In providing services, the Department supports and believes in the complete involvement of both the family and the community in the rehabilitation process.

In seeking to rehabilitate delinquent youth, the Department recognizes the importance of viewing each youth as an individual with unique treatment needs.  Each KY DJJ program uses a multi-disciplinary treatment team to review youths' unique treatment needs and develop individualized treatment plans designed to facilitate each youth's rehabilitation.  As education stands as a key factor in rehabilitating delinquent youth, individualized education plans are also developed and integrated with youths' treatment plans.  Through aftercare planning and increased employability (through academic achievement, workplace readiness training and vocational training), the Department seeks to keep youth crime free upon return to the community.

Kentucky has been nationally recognized for the continuum of care it provides for rehabilitating delinquent youth.  While many state's out-of-home placement options are limited to two or three large institutions, Kentucky is able to serve youth in a variety of small programs designed to meet specific treatment needs.

A youth committed to the Department may be placed in his/her own home with special conditions; or, if necessary, for best meeting the youth's needs or protecting the community, the youth may be placed out of his/her home.  Placement determinations are made by a centralized classification branch through a systematic means of assessing youth's treatment and supervision needs.

KY DJJ operates and contracts for the services of a variety of programs to both meet the treatment needs of delinquent youth and to protect the public, including community supervision programs, day treatment programs, group homes, residential treatment programs and private child care programs.  The Department seeks to serve youth in the least restrictive, appropriate placement possible.

The Department has also created a number of unique programs to better meet the needs of the juveniles it serves.  These programs include the Juvenile Intensive Supervision Team (JIST) Program, a partnership between local law enforcement agencies and KY DJJ to provide intensive surveillance of delinquent youth placed in the community; the Juvenile Community Work Program, a program designed to enhance the community services options in rural communities by providing a positive environment in which to hold youth accountable for delinquent acts; and the Cadet Leadership and Education Program (CLEP), an evolved form of boot camp that combines military drilling and regimen with intensive therapeutic services and supported transition back to the community.

In an effort to ensure all staff members are adequately trained to meet the needs of the delinquent population, KY DJJ has instituted a pre-service training academy for direct line staff in state-operated day treatment programs, group homes, residential treatment facilities and detention centers.  The academy includes courses in multi-cultural awareness, testing and assessment of youth, abuse and neglect issues, fire safety, crisis prevention, relationship development, team building, legal issues, gang issues, conflict resolution, suicide prevention, behavior management, stress management, relapse prevention and health services protocol.  All newly hired direct line staff are required to successfully complete the 7-week academy.

To ensure that staff currently working in the system maintain appropriate training, the Department also provides on-site training sessions in all of its programs.  Participation in training is mandatory.

Since its impetus, the Department of Juvenile Justice has strived to create a unified juvenile justice system by providing coordination of all juvenile justice services from prevention through aftercare.  KY DJJ has made incredible progress in relation to this goal and recognizes that maintaining a model juvenile justice system requires continuous improvement.