Investigations into Workplace Sex and a Fight Club at a Kentucky Juvenile Facility

According to authorities, at a juvenile detention center in Graves County, there is are investigations into employees who apparently had sex in the control room on multiple occasions and allowed an alleged fight club for youths in a classroom closet. 

At least three rank-and-file state workers lost their jobs at the facility due to the investigations including the facility manager who was notified on March 24th that he will be fired. The deputy manager was also demoted that same day to the position of youth worker.

 Some of the following is what state investigators have found at the Mayfield facility:

▪ A roughly 10-second cell phone video of a topless female employee, a counselor, that was shown to youths at the facility by a male employee. 

▪ A fight club between youths that was referred to as “running 30s” because they were allowed to fight for fun — body shots only, no face shots — for up to 30 seconds. The fights took place inside a classroom closet where no security camera was mounted, creating a blind spot, investigators said. No injuries were reported as a result of the fight club, according to authorities.

▪ Oral sex between two employees in the control room that was caught on a private FaceTime video last June. Control rooms are supposed to be staffed around the clock by employees who monitor security cameras and radio transmissions, answer phones and distribute protective equipment. 

▪ The sounds of what appear to be a separate sexual encounter between employees in the same control room that were accidentally captured on a digital audio recording last August. 


While they pieced all of this together, investigators said they grew concerned by other things that caught their attention. There was a young girl, who was not a resident of the all male facility, that  could be seen on security footage as she walked around the detention facility on Aug. 25, 2024. This included unsupervised time by herself in the control room. The girl seemed to be there that day with a member of the Critical Incident Response Team, according to authorities.

The medium-security Mayfield campus, with seven buildings, opened in 1978. It houses males between the ages of 12 and 21, with an average daily population of 14 detainees and 34 employees, according to a 2023 audit report. 

According to authorities, the juvenile facility's manager, Larry Jackson, had been dismissed by Juvenile Justice Commissioner Randy White, who was appointed by Gov. Andy Beshear a little over a year ago, is a former state prison warden. 

It is said that White told Jackson the reason for his dismissal was that nothing was done by Jackson to address the rumors and to ensure nothing inappropriate was happening at the facility as far back as June 2024. 

It all began on Oct. 24, 2024, when rehabilitation instructor Nicholas Morris, 43, was accused by colleagues of needlessly taunting a teenage boy into a hallway confrontation that led to the youth getting pepper-sprayed, according to authorities. 

After state investigators drove to Mayfield to review that use of force, Morris and two of his co-workers turned over several different pieces of incriminating evidence against each other. That evidence launched a web of investigations at the 30-bed Mayfield Youth Development Center, which is run by the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice.  

The facility has reported a number of escapes into the surrounding community over the past two years, including three escapes in July 2023 and four escapes in January 2024.

The medium-security Mayfield campus, with seven buildings, opened in 1978. It houses males between the ages of 12 and 21, with an average daily population of 14 detainees and 34 employees, according to records.