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In Kentucky, a troubling pattern of "intimate non-personal" abuse has emerged within the state's juvenile detention facilities. This term refers to situations where individuals are subjected to mistreatment that occurs within the context of intimate relationships but lacks personal connection. In the case of Kentucky's youth detention centers, this abuse manifests through systemic practices that exploit the vulnerabilities of detained minors.
Understanding "Intimate Non-Personal" Abuse
"Intimate non-personal" abuse occurs in relationships where individuals are compelled to engage due to systemic structures, such as housing, employment, or healthcare, rather than personal choice. These relationships are characterized by power imbalances and vulnerabilities that are exploited by perpetrators of abuse. In the context of Kentucky's juvenile detention centers, this form of abuse is evident in the treatment of detained minor children, who are subjected to conditions that undermine the children's dignity and well-being.
The Kentucky Juvenile Detention Center Scandal
In May 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a statewide investigation into the conditions at eight youth detention centers and one youth development center run by the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice. The investigation aims to examine whether Kentucky protects children confined in these facilities from harm caused by excessive force by staff, prolonged and punitive isolation, and inadequate protection from violence and sexual abuse. Additionally, the investigation will assess whether Kentucky provides adequate mental health services and required special education and related services to children with disabilities.
This federal inquiry follows a Kentucky auditor's report that highlighted ongoing problems within the state's juvenile child justice system, including the use of force and isolation techniques in the detention centers where the children live. The report revealed that staff members were using pepper spray on the children at a rate nearly 74 times higher than it is used in adult federal prisons. Furthermore, federal lawsuits have been filed alleging that minor children were kept in isolation cells for weeks in unsanitary conditions, with one lawsuit describing a 17-year-old child spending a month in an isolation cell in 2022.
Systemic Failures and Legal Challenges
One of the most concerning aspects of this case is the difficulty in prosecuting "intimate non-personal" abuse under existing legal statutes. While Kentucky law provides definitions and protections against domestic abuse, including intentional infliction of physical pain or injury, emotional and psychological abuse often falls into a gray area that is not adequately addressed. This legal gap leaves victims vulnerable and without sufficient recourse.
A Portion of the Nation Is Shut Out of Safety and Health
Overwhelmingly, intimate non-personal abuse affects Black Americans. This abuse is often carried out by individuals who not only exploit the power of their employment but who deliberately choose targets they believe are less likely to result in consequences. That belief is rooted in a national commitment to blurring the lines of legal process, procedure, and protection when it comes to Black Americans.
These abusers place themselves in employment roles that give them direct access to vulnerable, marginalized, and underrepresented individuals. Systemic failures and injustices within the legal system effectively sentence these individuals to physical abuse, often sexual in nature.
This abuse occurs within the intimacy of “proximity” — by individuals the victims have not chosen to have personal relationships with, and who should not have personal relationships with the victims but when their is lack of policy (law and regulation) enforcement to uphold their legal and personal boundaries injuries occur. Under the cover of racial injustice, abusers are able to force Black victims into personal, sexual, and abusive entanglements. These victims are often given stiffer consequences for the audacity to protect themselves in such situations where the institution of American justice has already determined "they're not entitled to protection" when it refused to enforce the existing policies created to targets from the possibility of "proximity", and then, from being made whole once they were violated through the modus operandi of "proximity." They were put in circumstance (through injustice) in which they would be accessible and encounter abusers who exploit that knowledge of injustice when choosing their targets.
This process of selection is so important to understand because we have to consider all the spaces and terms that result in a "proximity" and "accessibility" which would not exist if someone in regulatory employment position didn't deter from the text book procedure. This could be a judge, hearing officer, an oversight board, a principal etc. someone who had the authority to enforce policy by the book or not, that chose not, causing a set of actions to occur which resulted in "proximity" and "accessibility" to Intimate Non-Personal relationships. Relationships where abuse occurs at a rate that would likely frightened the pubic if the incidents were transparently reported.
Because these victims are already overlooked and marginalized, the dominant society does not hear about these events — though they are common knowledge within Black communities, from which the majority of these targets are drawn. The trauma is real.
There are not enough psychotherapy outlets offering treatment specific to the PTSD caused by systemic racism. This gap exists due to a medical infrastructure that prioritizes what it considers worth studying. For many, music is the only outlet — and now, even that is being weaponized to send victims back into the very abuse their music helps them process.
A portion of the nation is shut out of safety and health. They are not the only ones — but they are the main ones. Ad hominin fallacies about how all of society treats children, combined with the limited rights and ability to self-advocate afforded to children in the professional space, often result in youth being targets of abuse in Intimate Non-Personal relationships. Sexism in the professional space, often results in women being the targets of abuse in Intimate Non-Personal relationships. Black males and especially black, male, youth are often the targets of abuse in Intimate Non-Personal relationships because they are regarded as suspicious — as a character trait, therefore easy to dismiss when reporting they are victims. Black women are the number one targets of Intimate Non-Personal abuse. Abuse within intimate, non-personal, professional space — because existing regulation, law and policy is not being enforced to protect these individuals right to personal boundaries. Its a specific symptom of the systematic racism we're not resolving by simply enforcing the law which already exist equally— by the book. This doesn't mean policing. This means legislation, regulation, business policy etc.
Our racism and bigotry is the cause of emotional, physical, sexual violence and death, happening in intimate non-personal relationships (i.e. professional space) and we need to transparently address and resolve this. We take actions against individuals, without having to stick around to experience the consequence which our actions have on those individuals. Well this series exposes thousands of cases demonstrating that this is one of consequences: physical, emotional and sexual violence in the spaces they're sent to because of us. Our people know that we're unjust and they're exploiting that to enter positions of "direct access" to abuse under the cover of our commitment to injustice. Like it or not, we share guilt as facilitators.
The lawsuits allege that the state failed to supervise, discipline, remove, or investigate alleged abusers, enabling the abuse to continue occurring on these children. Many children who are the plaintiffs allege their abusers threatened them with beatings, transfers to tougher facilities, and longer sentences if they reported the abuse. Other children were given rewards like food, cigarettes, or the chance to play video games if they kept quiet. These tactics reflect a systemic failure to protect vulnerable children within the juvenile detention system for children.
The Need for Legal Reform
The Kentucky case underscores the urgent need for legal reform to address the complexities of "intimate non-personal" abuse. Advocates argue for the inclusion of Intimate Non-Personal abuse within the legal definitions of domestic abuse and sexual abuse, ensuring that all forms of mistreatment are recognized and prosecuted.
Additionally, they argue for the official recognition of Legal Abuse Syndrome (LAS) — a form of psycholegal Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder — as a standalone diagnosis for survivors of systemic racism. The goal is to ensure that industry professionals are properly trained to provide medical support through psychotherapy tailored to this specific form of PTSD, which continues to plague the Black population in the United States because of their experience of legal injustices which precede traumas like Intimate Non-Personal violence.
Furthermore, there is a call for increased training for law enforcement and legal professionals in the field of comprehending diversity in order to better recognize and respond to the subtle signs of this form of abuse. Victims may not present with physical injuries, making it challenging for authorities to identify and intervene effectively — strengthening our cultural understanding of one another and speaking transparently our experiences and issues can minimize the systemic injustice facilitating this form of abuse.
We don’t need entirely new laws or massive funding to address the issue of Intimate Non-Personal abuse. What we need is a serious commitment to enforcing the policies, regulations, and laws that already exist — many of which are effective when they are actually applied. It's time to take decisive action: to terminate individuals who disregard or defy established protocols, and to pursue both civil and criminal accountability for those — including entire agencies — who commit violations. These are not “disparities.” They are crimes. And they must be documented, prosecuted, and resolved as such.
The case of "intimate non-personal" abuse in Kentucky serves as a poignant reminder of the remaining hidden nature of abuse and the necessity for legal systems to reform accordingly. As society becomes more aware of the various forms of violence that can occur within Intimate Non-Personal (professional proximity), it is imperative that psychology evolve to provide comprehensive protection for all victims, regardless of the connection to the abuser.
Addressing the challenges posed by "intimate non-personal" abuse requires a multifaceted approach, including legal reform to aggressively prosecute, education to stop excluding black experience from whitecentric psychology, protection via enforcement of policy that already exist and support for victims. Only through such comprehensive efforts can we hope to combat this insidious form of abuse and ensure that all individuals can live free from fear and manipulation.
Additional Source: Associated Press
Suggested Reading
The Case of "Intimate Non-Personal" Abuse In Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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