LEXINGTON, Ky. — One of Kentucky’s most controversial juvenile detention centers flunked an annual inspection in May, as state officials cited its filthy conditions, broken equipment, youths languishing in cells for extended periods and poor documentation about the staff’s use of pepper spray and physical force.

The state-run Adair Youth Development Center in Columbia has 30 days to correct nearly two dozen problems listed in a 154-page Quality Assurance monitoring report, which the Lexington Herald-Leader obtained under the Kentucky Open Records Act.

The 80-bed campus in Adair County is run by the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice. It houses a combined regional juvenile detention center and youth development center, holding teen-aged boys before and after they’re convicted of criminal offenses.

The inspection was conducted during the first week in May by a team from the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet. Quality Assurance inspections are usually done ahead of the accreditation inspection of an outside group, the American Correctional Association.

One youth at the facility sat on the floor of his cell doing schoolwork for lack of furniture, state inspectors wrote. Every cell where youths are locked more than 10 hours a day is supposed to have a desk and a stool.

Another youth said he had no shoes or sandals, inspectors wrote. Other youths complained of a broken toilet or leaking ceiling in their cells with no repair orders on file to show the problems were being fixed, while still more youths did not appear to be getting their prescription medicines because staff considered them a security risk.

“Youth stated he has not been out of his room for over 24 hours,” inspectors wrote of Cell Unit West 203.

Four cells down the line, they wrote: “Youth stated he does not get (complaint) hotline calls, attorney calls, has missed court, no toothbrush or deodorant for 2 days, has not showered for 2-3 days.”

Along with the state’s seven other regional juvenile detention centers, the Adair County facility is the focus of a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, looking into allegations that youths are mistreated while in state custody.

Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration this week said the federal probe appears to be continuing, even as the Trump administration has dismantled much of the work of the department’s civil rights division.

Among recent problems uncovered at the facility, Kentucky State Police in April charged teacher Elena Bardin with giving sexually explicit material to a youth in custody and soliciting him to kill her husband. According to a state investigation, Bardin — who worked at the facility — managed to develop a sexual relationship with the youth and give him explicit photos of herself and 156 pages of letters, revealing glaring holes in the facility’s security.

The facility’s longtime superintendent, Tonya Burton, resigned in November, just ahead of getting fired, after her superiors said she failed to conduct important mental health assessments of youths and wrongly accused a teen boy of getting a handcuff key from one of her guards.

In a pending lawsuit, two young women say they and other girls were abused, neglected, humiliated and deprived of health care, education and basic hygiene while held at the facility in 2022.

And lawyers for a mentally ill girl who spent much of the summer of 2022 locked — sometimes naked — in a filthy isolation cell at the facility say security staff mocked her smell and ignored her cries for help.

During a riot at the facility in November 2022 — an outbreak of violence predicted by insiders, whose warnings of “stomach-turning” abuses fell on deaf ears — a teen girl was raped by boys who broke into her unit.

In a prepared statement this week, Juvenile Justice Commissioner Randy White told the Herald-Leader that he expects to see improvements in how the Adair County facility is operated.

“Since day one, I have prioritized implementing new practices to increase the safety of our facilities,” said White, a former state prison warden whom Beshear appointed to run the department last year.

“It was critical to completely restructure Adair and build a new team to create long-lasting, institutional changes in culture,” White said. “We are continuing to build and train a strong leadership team at this facility.

“Once complete, this will greatly benefit the youth in our care and ensure rehabilitation and safer communities.”

Among the findings in the state’s inspection:

—The kitchen, dining room, hallways and individual cells were dirty, with trash cans overflowing and paint bubbling and peeling on the walls from moisture damage.

—Lights were out in the dayroom and the showers.

—The showers were musty, apparently mildewed and had missing tiles, and there were no curtains or locking doors to provide privacy.

—The outdoor recreation area was “unusable” — weedy, littered with trash, with broken tables.

—There was inadequate documentation to show how youths get required exercise and recreation time.

—There was inadequate documentation to show that youths held in isolation are being observed, with 15-minute safety checks, or giving the reasons for youths to be held in confinement.

—There was inadequate documentation to track the daily inventory and usage of pepper spray by staff and the monthly total of physical force incidents.

—Grievance forms were not available to youths to complain of mistreatment, and likewise, the Department of Juvenile Justice complaint hotline number was not posted.

A Louisville lawyer who represents youths once held at the Adair County facility in federal litigation said there is no excuse for the Beshear administration to keep allowing these conditions.

“Most Kentuckians would not board their dog in a facility like this,” attorney Laura Landenwich said.

“Grotesque abuses of these young people have been documented by third-party auditors for nearly a decade,” Landenwich said. “We asked a federal judge to intervene and stop the abuse at the Adair County facility in a lawsuit we filed 18 months ago. The response to all of this from the DJJ was to spend its efforts trying stymie the litigation with a slew of petty motions and a frivolous appeal, while allowing the conditions in the facility to descend to another hellish low.”

The facility was most recently accredited by the American Correctional Association in August 2024, said Morgan Hall, spokeswoman for the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.

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