FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Andy Beshear expanded upon recent steps taken by his administration to address a recent rash of violent incidents at juvenile detention centers in the state.

“In the last several months, our juvenile detention centers have seen violent outbursts. This has threatened the safety of staff and residents and resulted in substantial property damage to some of our centers,” said Beshear.

Beshear announced that he is directing the Department of Juvenile Justice to raise the starting salary of DJJ workers in detention centers to $50,000 annually and to reclassify youth workers as correctional officers. He also announced the hiring of Larry Chandler as DJJ’s director of security to improve safety and security. Chandler is a former Department of Corrections warden.

“Mr. Chandler brings 33 years of correctional experience, having served as warden of six Kentucky prisons,” Beshear said. “Mr. Chandler is assisting DJJ by evaluating worker safety needs and facility security enhancements at all detention centers.” The governor said Chandler would be visiting each facility in the state to assess needed improvements.

In addition, Beshear announced the creation of a Compliance Division for juvenile justice centers, the introduction of defensive equipment for youth workers, a reorganization of the DJJ and the initiation of the process to build to new, state-of-the-art detention facilities.

“This is just the beginning of facility security enhancements that we propose,” the governor sad. “DJJ should build two new state-of-the-art detention centers to serve the needs of youth in our custody. We plan to present these requests to the General Assembly during this session, as they are vital to protecting our at-risk youth and assisting our law enforcement officers.”

In December, Beshear took some initial step to address the growing problem of violent outbursts in Kentucky’s juvenile detention centers. Those included the creation of an all-female facility and the reorganization of male juveniles by their security level based on the severity of their offense, rather than on their age.