Kenny Loftin, Gov. Jeff Landry’s embattled pick to run Louisiana’s juvenile justice system, came under fire during a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, when he said allegations that a raft of abuse occurred under his watch at a youth detention center were “made up.”
Loftin ran the Ware Youth Detention Center in Red River Parish for over 20 years before retiring in 2015. In 2022, the facility came into the national spotlight after a New York Times report unearthed allegations from 42 people held at Ware who said staff sexually abused them.
The allegations, which involved 30 staff members, spanned a 25-year period, ending in 2022 when the Times published its report.
After Democratic members of the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee grilled Loftin about the report, the new Office of Juvenile Justice head called the allegations “a flat-out lie.”
“They just made it up?” Sen. Gary Carter, Jr., D-New Orleans, asked as he pressed Loftin about the concerns.
“Yes, they made it up,” said Loftin. “That was a hit piece.”
Loftin, who said he did not read the Times report, claimed that two reporters and the mother of a child who died by suicide at Ware after Loftin left the facility “teamed up, and their goal was to shut Ware down.”
Carter continued to press the issue.
“I just can’t dismiss (public concerns) and say, ‘Hey I talked to the guy. He said it’s all just flat lies,’” he told Loftin.
In a statement, the New York Times defended its report.
“We stand by the accuracy of our reporting. The investigation was based on more than 100 interviews with people previously held at Ware and current and former staff members, thousands of pages of records and court documents, and hours of security footage,” a Times spokesperson said in a statement, adding that Loftin declined comment prior to that story’s publication.
Though Loftin, who did not return a reporter’s request for comment Thursday, has started in his role with OJJ, the Senate still needs to vote to approve his appointment. Wednesday’s hearing marked a precursor to that vote; the full Senate does not publicly debate such confirmation votes.
It is unclear exactly when Loftin’s vote will take place, but it is likely to be toward the end of the legislative session.
The OJJ oversees the state’s juvenile detention centers, group homes and other youth services.
Carter and Regina Barrow, a Democrat from Baton Rouge and the Senate president pro tempore, raised the most concerns about Loftin’s appointment. Both lawmakers belong to the Louisiana Black Caucus, which has asked Landry to choose a different person for the job.
It was hard for Carter to dismiss “calls from our constituents expressing concerns that the person who the governor has appointed to be over youth services, according to this report, that many children were abused when you were in charge of the facility,” Carter said. “To place the whole system under your watch, that’s concerning.”
In answering the senators’ questions, Loftin pointed to a new report from the state inspector general’s office, which “says that everything was fine (at Ware),” Loftin said. However, the state’s probe only looked at incidents at Ware that occurred after 2016, foregoing the vast majority of Loftin’s tenure there.
Loftin said he did not give testimony for the state probe.
The inspector general’s report also found deficiencies ahead of two child suicides in 2019, when Loftin was no longer director—a fact he stressed during the hearing in an effort to distance himself from problems at Ware. He told the Senate panel it was the suicides that resulted in the Times report.
The Times did investigate the suicides, but also reviewed decades of abuse allegations. It quoted a former OJJ official who said Loftin had no regard for state oversight. Loftin denied that allegation during Wednesday’s hearing.
During that hearing, two Republican senators defended Loftin’s appointment.
“I am proud that you’re not going to let one uncorroborated hit piece in the media define your long, storied career of service in that field and the professionalism that you bring to the table,” said Sen. Mike Reese, R-Leesville, adding that he believed Loftin would help reform the state’s approach to juvenile justice.
Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, read four letters recommending Loftin for the job, which he said came from a much larger stack. According to Miguez, one former Ware social worker called Loftin a “caring and wonderful leader,” while a longtime Missouri juvenile justice official said Loftin was “at the top of the list of juvenile administrators in terms of leadership, integrity and accountability.”
A spokesperson for Landry did not return a request for comment.