Bruce Jennings is the superintendent of the Warren Regional Juvenile Detention Center, which is set to open in October.

Youths who will be lodged in Warren Countys juvenile jail on Kentucky Street when construction is completed may find their schedules the busiest of their lives. When the facility opens in October, young offenders will juggle schedules that include counseling sessions, education, sports and recreation or reading in the jails library, facility Superintendent Bruce Jennings said Friday. Most structural work at Warren Regional Juvenile Detention Center is finished and workers now are putting final touches, paint and wiring throughout the building. The construction is expected to be complete by June or July, Jennings said. The center will serve a maximum of 48 accused or convicted juvenile offenders from Warren and surrounding counties and will serve a juvenile population as far north of Bowling Green as Henderson and Owensboro, Jennings said. Our mission is safety and security, Jennings said while walking through the facility. We have the resources here to be able to do that. This is state-of-the-art, no question about that. Jennings worked for several years for the state Department of Juvenile Justice and was superintendent for Bowling Green Group Homes. He also was district supervisor for Community Services, which oversaw an eight-county jurisdiction. Cameras and a central control pod will allow jail employees to monitor all sections of the building at all times, Jennings said. Each inmate will be housed in a private room with a private sink, toilet, desk, bed and chair. Each room opens into a supervised common area that includes 10 cells. The youths will be responsible for keeping their own rooms clean and sanitary, Jennings said. Facility residents will attend school five days a week with four or five full-time teachers, allowing them to continue earning class credit or work on their General Equivalency Diploma, he said. Hiring of around 54 needed employees will come in June or July. Each jail employee will undergo a 10-week training session before beginning work, he said. Now, there are five or six Warren County juvenile offenders lodged in a segregated section of Warren County Regional Jail. Once the new facility opens, that juvenile section will close and county juvenile inmates will move to the detention center, which is next door to the county jail, Warren County Justice Center and Bowling Green police department.