Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (https://kycir.org/series/gynnya-mcmillen-death-detention-center/)
Our series of reports into the mysterious detention center death of 16-year-old Gynnya McMillen.
Kentucky’s juvenile detention centers overuse isolation rooms and lack basic mental health care for the thousands of youths that cycle through the system each year, a state consultant has concluded after an eight-month review.
Two former employees of the juvenile detention center where Gynnya McMillen died in 2016 pleaded guilty Wednesday to official misconduct. Victor Holt and Reginald Windham were each sentenced Wednesday in Hardin County District Court to pay a $200 fine, plus court costs. Judge John Simcoe did not assign any jail time, although the charge could have brought up to 90 days. Holt and Windham were indicted last March on the misdemeanor charge after investigators determined that they and other Lincoln Village Regional Detention Center employees skipped bed checks and falsified logs. Gynnya, 16, was found unresponsive in her room at Lincoln Village on the morning of Jan.
Recent reforms have lowered the number of youth in facilities like Lincoln Village, which is operating with less than half of its 44-bed capacity.
Several topics of our coverage merited debate in the most recent legislative session. Here’s an update on what became law and what didn’t pass through the statehouse.
One year ago today, 16-year-old Gynnya McMillen died alone in a locked room inside a Kentucky juvenile detention center.
A juvenile detention center staffer watched and failed to provide any assistance as Gynnya McMillen gasped amid a fatal seizure earlier this year, according to a federal lawsuit.
While state public schools have banned staff from using Aikido-style physical restraints on students, Kentucky’s Department of Juvenile Justice continues to use the method.
In a demonstration at the state Capitol on Thursday, activists called on Gov. Matt Bevin to make reforms to the state’s juvenile detention system after the death of Gynnya McMillen.
A lack of supervision — leaving residents unattended, skipping bed checks and falsifying logs — is a frequent complaint in the state’s juvenile justice system and could signal a cultural problem.
State juvenile justice officials have fired a third employee for skipping required bed checks on the day 16-year-old Gynnya McMillen died in a Hardin County juvenile facility.
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