Blog Post | 114 KY. L. J. ONLINE | November 8, 2025
Children Abandoned: The Use of Solitary Confinement in Kentucky’s Juvenile Detention Centers & the Impact of Governor Beshear’s Recent Emergency Regulations
By: Alexandra Wesley, Staff Editor, Vol. 114
The history of Kentucky’s juvenile system has always been turbulent, filled with allegations of abuse, promises of change, and a never-ending cycle.[1] Repeatedly, the Kentucky juvenile system has proven it is incapable of adequately supporting and protecting Kentucky children at a time when they need it most. One perpetual problem is Kentucky’s continued unstructured implementation of “restrictive housing” as a punitive measure against children.[2]
While Kentucky employs this terminology, most would be more familiar with its twin counterpart, “solitary confinement.”[3] Since Kentucky’s juvenile incarceration system holds some of our most vulnerable groups in its care,[4] it is time for our government officials and departments to shift from a reactive to a proactive policy approach. To accomplish this, Kentucky must permanently ban the use of solitary confinement as a form of punishment.
In 1995, a scathing federal investigation prompted Kentucky to completely restructure its juvenile detention system, which subsequently led Kentucky to be considered a national example of best practices for rehabilitating incarcerated youth.[5] However, Kentucky legislation has once again fallen behind the rest of the country, while our incarcerated youth and their well-being suffer the consequences. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice began a civil rights investigation into the Kentucky juvenile system to determine whether “Kentucky protects children confined in these facilities from harm caused by . . . prolonged and punitive isolation . . . .”[6] Most recently, the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) 2024 audit confirmed solitary confinement is extremely prevalent within our juvenile detention system.[7] Specifically, the DJJ found “policies and procedures for isolation are inconsistently defined, applied, and in conflict with nationally recognized best practices.”[8] The use of isolation was varied for “disciplinary, non-behavioral, and housing assignment purposes,” even though the DJJ policy is not to use isolation unless the child “engages in behavior that poses an imminent threat to the safety and security” of others.[9]
Solitary confinement, regularly used as a punitive measure, is defined as “the placement of an incarcerated individual in a locked room or cell with minimal or no contact with people other than staff of the correctional facility.” [10] Kentucky attempts to use the term “restrictive housing,” instead of solitary confinement, but the label denotes a kinder, gentler approach instead of the harsh reality to which our Kentucky youth have been subjected.[11] In fact, research has shown the extensive damage juveniles face under solitary confinement.[12] The impact of solitary confinement on children differs greatly from the impact on adults.[13] Adolescents do not have fully developed brains, and solitary confinement can “inhibit the natural growth and development of juveniles.”[14] Therefore, solitary confinement often yields more harmful outcomes to a child’s well-being and mental health than adults.[15] These harmful outcomes include “hallucinations, extreme anxiety or rage, severe depression, [and] suicidal thoughts or attempts . . . .”[16] The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry’s policy recognizes these harms and “opposes the use of solitary confinement of juveniles for disciplinary purposes.”[17]
Further, the damages of solitary confinement on children have been recognized around the world and at many legislative levels. In 2016, President Barack Obama issued an Executive Action banning solitary confinement for juveniles under federal jurisdiction.[18] Additionally, the United Nations policy prohibits “all disciplinary measures constituting cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment . . . including . . . closed or solitary confinement . . . that may compromise the physical or mental health of the juvenile concerned.”[19] As research and the global condemnation of juvenile solitary confinement have increased, many states have begun to implement stricter standards or have wholly abandoned the practice for punitive purposes.[20]
The DJJ’s 2024 audit found that solitary confinement was used across all eight juvenile detention centers in Kentucky.[21] In 2023 alone, there was a “total of 1,579 occurrences of isolation.”[22] However, there were no records detailing the reasons for the punishment or the length of time a child was held in solitary confinement.[23] For example, at the Fayette Regional Juvenile Detention Center, one child was confined for “more than two days,” even though he was observed as “calm and had no current documented behavior or disciplinary issues.”[24] The facility’s reason for the extensive and continued isolation was undocumented and “lacked substantial information.”[25]
In response to the DJJ’s 2024 audit, Governor Andy Beshear recently announced emergency regulations to decrease the use of solitary confinement, and he intends for these emergency regulations to eventually become a permanent regulation.[26] Specifically, Governor Beshear and the DJJ have implemented “more frequent medical and mental health evaluations” and “real-time process review[s] by persons with higher levels of governmental authority.”[27] The regulations specifically limit the duration a child can remain in solitary confinement, require frequent observations of the child, extensive documentation, and prohibit the use of solitary confinement as a punitive measure.[28] While Governor Beshear’s emergency regulations seem encouraging, they indicate that Kentucky is once again on the reactive side of policy, and instead merely serve as a band-aid to a recurring issue that puts Kentucky youth at risk.
Kentucky needs to be a national leader in the fight for the well-being of its incarcerated youth. Before Governor Beshear implemented the emergency regulations, Kentucky was one of the fifteen remaining states that still implemented juvenile solitary confinement as a punitive measure.[29] Governor Beshear's emergency regulations indicate that solitary confinement is a prevalent issue that currently holds the attention of governmental leaders at both the national and local levels.[30] While the emergency regulations are seen as a positive step, only time will tell if these measures will be fully implemented and become a permanent fixture in Kentucky’s juvenile detention centers. For Governor Beshear to maintain momentum for permanent change, there must be a statewide commitment to abandon the use of solitary confinement as a punitive measure against Kentucky children.
[1] See generally Deborah Yetter, Juvenile Justice: ‘From Nothing to Something and Then Right Back to Nothing’, Ky. Lantern (May 28, 2024, 5:50 AM ET), https://kentuckylantern.com/2024/05/28/juvenile-justice-from-nothing-to-something-and-then-right-back-to-nothing/.
[2] See McKenna Horsley, Beshear Announces Updated Isolation Policies for Kentucky Juvenile Detention, Ky. Lantern (Sept. 26, 2025, 10:24 AM ET), https://kentuckylantern.com/briefs/beshear-announces-updated-restrictive-housing-policies-for-kentuckys-juvenile-offenders/; Ky. Dep’t Juv. Just., Juvenile Justice Performance Assessment of Facilities 20 (2024), https://www.auditor.ky.gov/Auditreports/Miscellaneous/KentuckyDJJPerformanceReview.pdf.
[3] Andreea Matei, Urb. Inst., Solitary Confinement in US Prisons 1 (2022).
[4] See generally Kiara Thomas, Time for Change: Florida’s Use of Juvenile Solitary Confinement, 14 S. J. Just. & Pol’y 32, 40 (2020) (finding “seventy percent” of juveniles in the system have “at minimum one mental health issue”).
[5] See Yetter, supra note 1.
[6] Justice Department Announces Civil Rights Investigation into Conditions at Kentucky Youth Detention Centers, U.S. Dep’t Just. (May 15, 2024), https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-civil-rights-investigation-conditions-kentucky-youth-detention.
[7] Ky. Dep’t Juv. Just., supra note 2, at 20-33.
[8] Id. at 20.
[9] Id. at 24, 30.
[10] Policy Statement on Solitary Confinement in Juvenile Carceral Settings, Am. Acad. Child & Adolescent Psych. (Apr. 2025), https://www.aacap.org/aacap/Policy_Statements/2025/Solitary_Confinement_Juvenile_Carceral_Settings.aspx.
[11] Matei, supra note 3, at 1.
[12] See Laura Anne Gallagher, More than a Time Out: Juvenile Solitary Confinement, 18 U.C. Davis J. Juv. L. & Pol’y 244, 249-50 (2014); Thomas, supra note 4, at 35.
[13] Gallagher, supra note 12, at 249-50.
[14] Thomas, supra note 4, at 35.
[15] Gallagher, supra note 12, at 249-51.
[16] Id. at 251.
[17] Am. Acad. Child & Adolescent Psych, supra note 10.
[18] President Obama Bans Solitary Confinement for Juveniles in Federal Prisons, Equal Just. Initiative (Jan. 26, 2016), https://eji.org/news/president-obama-bans-solitary-for-juveniles-in-federal-prisons/.
[19] G.A. Res. 45/113, ¶ 67 (Dec. 14, 1990).
[20] See Jessica Guarino & Anne Teigen, States Search for Balance in Use of Juvenile Solitary Confinement, Nat’l Conf. State Legis. (May 27, 2025), https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/states-search-for-balance-in-use-of-juvenile-solitary-confinement; The Use of Solitary Confinement on Juveniles, Nat’l Conf. State Legis. (Apr. 30, 2025), https://www.ncsl.org/civil-and-criminal-justice/the-use-of-solitary-confinement-on-youth.
[21] Ky. Dep’t Juv. Just., supra note 2, at 29.
[22] Id.
[23] Id.
[24] Id. at 26.
[25] Id.
[26] 505 Ky. Admin. Reg. 1:410E (2025).
[27] Id.
[28] Id.
[29] Juvenile Solitary Confinement Practices, Nat’l Conf. State Legis. (Apr. 30, 2025), https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiMzYyMWUwNjQtNDNmYi00ZmY3LTkzZDEtYTNhNTMzODE4M2UwIiwidCI6IjM4MmZiOGIwLTRkYzMtNDEwNy04MGJkLTM1OTViMjQzMmZhZSIsImMiOjZ9 (filter to display states that implement juvenile solitary confinement as a punitive measure by selecting “Punitive” under “Use Justifications”).
[30] See U.S. Dep’t Just., supra note 6; Horsley, supra note 2.