Landry’s controversial juvenile justice leader goes up for Senate vote Monday

The Louisiana Senate will have to make a decision about whether to confirm Gov. Jeff Landry’s controversial appointment to the Office of Juvenile Justice Monday. (Photo by Julie O’Donoghue/Louisiana Illuminator)

In the final hours of the annual legislative session, the Louisiana Senate will decide whether to approve Gov. Jeff Landry’s controversial pick to run the state’s juvenile justice office and youth prisons.

Senators will meet in private Monday to debate hundreds of government appointees. Those nominated can only keep their jobs if a majority of senators vote to confirm them. 

Landry’s decision to select Kenneth “Kenny” Loftin to be deputy secretary of the Office of Juvenile Justice has been contentious since it was first made in February. The Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus almost immediately asked the governor to withdraw his nomination after it was announced. 

“I am absolutely not voting for him,” Senate President Pro Tempore Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, said Sunday. “I will not be part of that.” 

For decades, Loftin ran the Ware Youth Center in Coushatta, the subject of a lengthy news investigation concerning child abuse at the hands of the facility’s staff. The article ran in an October 2022 edition of The New York Times.

Loftin was not accused of any direct abuse, but much of the alleged violence described in the article happened when he led the facility. The Times reported 42 people held at Ware over a 25-year period said they were sexually abused by Ware staff. Loftin oversaw the facility from its opening in 1993 to 2015 and again from 2021 to 2023. 

Loftin did not return a call or text message to his phone Sunday. During a public hearing in a Senate committee last month, he said the people who detailed the alleged abuse in The Times article were lying.

“So they made it up?” Sen. Gary Carter, D-New Orleans, asked Loftin during the hearing about women who brought forward the Ware accusations. 

“Yes. They made it up,” Loftin replied. 

Troubled by Loftin’s response to the accusations, Barrow sought to unseal court documents and other reports related to Ware ahead of Monday’s confirmation hearing. She said she received some Ware records and had Senate staff review them over the past week, but they were heavily redacted. 

The additional information about Ware didn’t dissuade Barrow from objecting to Loftin’s nomination, she said. 

Landry is putting pressure on senators to confirm Loftin. who has met one-on-one with some legislators in an effort to earn their favor. The governor’s office has also circulated a list of endorsements for Loftin, mostly from community leaders in north Louisiana. 

Those backing Loftin with formal statements include Bossier City Marshal Jim Whitman and former state pardon and parole board member Jim Wise. Loftin served with Wise on the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Parole for former Gov. John Bel Edwards. 

Mark Stewart, a nationally recognized juvenile justice expert, is also publicly sticking up for Loftin.

“Mr. Loftin is just a good person and a good leader,” Stewart said in an interview last week.

Decades ago, Stewart helped transform the Missouri juvenile justice system from a punitive program to a therapeutic model dubbed the “Missouri model.” His approach grew into the gold standard for juvenile justice services and was applied across the country, including in Louisiana.

Stewart has advised Louisiana officials on juvenile justice services for 25 years and through the terms of five governors, he said. His organization, Missouri Youth Services Institute, began working at Ware over a decade ago, he said. 

“We saw no indication of any kind of poor treatment or abuse” at Ware, Stewart said. When staff didn’t treat incarcerated children at the facility well, Loftin dismissed those workers. 

“There’s a special place in hell for people who overlook kids who are being mistreated,” Stewart said. 

Last week, Loftin met privately with the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee, which vets appointees for the full Senate ahead of confirmation votes.

Loftin brought three women who used to work for him at Ware to the meeting to serve as character witnesses. They were expected to defend Loftin’s professionalism, but were never called upon to speak, according to Brent Littlefield, a political advisor to Landry.

Landry also reached out to Barrow personally two weeks ago to advocate for Loftin, the senator said. Barrow still isn’t convinced Loftin is the right person for the job, given the allegations in The Times report.

“If you are the leader, the buck stops with you. You are responsible,” she said. 

Barrow could take the rare step of making her colleagues take a vote to confirm Loftin publicly, although she said she isn’t sure how many other senators are willing to join her in opposing the governor’s choice. Democrats and Republicans have expressed concerns about his appointment, but many are uncomfortable going against Landry’s wishes, she said. 

“I’ve been somewhat disappointed with the responses I’ve gotten” from other senators, she said.

The confirmation process is typically secretive. Communication between the governor’s office and senators over nominees for confirmation is explicitly kept confidential under the law. Most of the debate about whom to confirm also takes place behind closed doors.

On Monday morning, the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee will send a list of hundreds of appointees the committee recommends for confirmation to the full Senate. The Senate will then discuss who to keep on the list during a private, executive session.

Usually, senators vote to confirm the list of appointees en masse, though they can pull someone out of the group and ask for an independent vote on the individual. It’s unusual for a senator to take that step, however.

If a nominee fails to get confirmed, it’s typically because the senator who represents them personally objects to their appointment. The Senate has a custom of deferring to an appointee’s home senator about whether their confirmation should go forward.

Loftin’s personal senator is Sen. Alan Seabaugh, a conservative Republican from Shreveport who is close to Landry. So far, Seabaugh has declined to say whether he supports Loftin’s confirmation.

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