Changing Juvenile Justice: How Candid Conversations Helped Shape Policy

Changing Juvenile Justice: How Candid Conversations Helped Shape Policy

Senator credits taking time to listen to youth advocates for pivotal changes in legislation.

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Kentucky Sen. Whitney Westerfield, center, says his conversations with youth advocates Dequantay Smith, left, and Leondrea Johnson opened his eyes to flaws in the juvenile justice system.

In working on SB 200, 2014 legislation that led to a major overhaul of Kentucky's juvenile justice system, Sen. Whitney Westerfield (R) says he and his colleagues spoke to a variety of stakeholder groups: judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and law enforcement officials among them.

Still, he says, he "blew it."

"I didn't have a one-on-one conversation with anybody who had been through the system," he told a juvenile justice session at NCSL's Legislative Summit. "I hadn't been in their shoes. I didn't make an effort. I'm ashamed to say it never occurred to me."

But Westerfield made it a point to change that, and a meeting with Dequantay Smith and Leondrea Johnson, members of REFORM Louisville, a group that assists youth who have been part of the juvenile justice system, not only opened his eyes to flaws in the system but also resulted in language being added to future legislation.

"People do not listen to younger people, and we need to change that because we have insight."

-Leondrea Johnson, REFORM Louisville

"We talk about policies as legislators in our states and jurisdictions around the country," he says. "We're asked to vote on things all the time, but we're not subject-matter experts on everything, right? We read the bill; we listen to stakeholders who come to see us or who reach out and have an opinion they want to share, or the lobbyist who comes in and educates us about this side of the issue or that side of the issue."

But, Westerfield admits, he hadn't stopped to think, "What have the kids' experiences been like here in Kentucky to go through the system?"

Smith experienced the juvenile justice system firsthand and says he especially struggled with the lack of mental health resources available.

"No child wants to be in a place like that," he says. "Situations like financial need, lack of opportunities or looking up to the wrong people all play a part in having an opportunity. When you don't have the right opportunities or you don't have anybody who can provide those for you, then there is only one road that you can go down, and that's a road that a lot of juveniles are going down right now because they don't know any better."

Although she was not part of the juvenile justice system herself, Johnson says several of her siblings have been, and not being able to communicate with her family during the process causes its own form of trauma. She recalls a brother who felt he'd been abandoned.

"But it wasn't like that," she says. "My mom had to work two or three jobs just to keep the bills going, and we didn't really have an active father. It's still hard trying to get him to trust us a little more."

REFORM Louisville works to advocate for youth, discussing opportunities and resources to help young people turn their lives around and become productive members of the community, Smith says. And first and foremost, he notes, they need love.

"A lot of juveniles you come across don't get any type of love," Smith says. "Not having that person to love and care about you and want better for you can cause you to go down a destructive path. Secondly, we need more people to sit down and talk with these kids and try to figure out what's going on inside the home because that's really where the problem starts. A lot of these kids have financial problems-they're not getting clothes, they're not getting fed. I think the juvenile system needs to provide more help when it comes to these mental health issues."

Smith says though he was somewhat nervous to speak with Westerfield, his goal was to show the senator what it was like to be in his shoes. And Johnson? She just wanted to be heard.

"People do not listen to younger people, and we need to change that because we have insight," she says. "We didn't really talk about stuff in my house. I had to learn that as I got older. So, when it's time to speak, I'm going to speak and I'm going to speak real loud and clear."

Westerfield says Smith and Johnson can be credited for language that went into the enactment of juvenile justice system changes in 2023.

"They made a difference," he says. "That language went into effect because they came and bothered to share their story and I bothered to listen."

Lesley Kennedy is NCSL's director of publishing and digital content.