"The Herald-Leader reviewed thousands of pages of department records, state personnel files, police reports and other documents and identified at least 116 substantiated "special incidents" involving the department's employees from February 2018 to May 2021.

"Records show that some department employees are cited for 'special incidents' with youths multiple times, and when they are disciplined, it can be done inconsistently. Some are fired while others are allowed to resign on their own terms. Some are kept on even after the kinds of incidents that have cost others their jobs.

"It can be difficult to fire a state employee with merit-system protection, said Ray DeBolt, who served briefly as juvenile justice commissioner under former Gov. Matt Bevin in 2019.

"'They are basically civil-service workers with the right to appeal our decisions to the Personnel Board,' DeBolt said. 'So it has to be something that's pretty egregious. We've had to take people back on until there have been sufficient documented grounds to terminate them.'

"The Department of Juvenile Justice refused the Herald-Leader's request under the Open Records Act for video and audio recordings it holds of many of these incidents, citing security and privacy concerns."