McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center Overview
McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center is operated by the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, not by the McCracken County Jailer. Its official DJJ page places the facility at 500 County Park Road in Paducah and describes it as a secure regional juvenile detention center for low-level male juveniles. The DJJ page says the youth housed there are charged with a Class D felony or lesser offense. That makes the facility a juvenile detention setting, not an adult jail, not a Kentucky Department of Corrections adult prison, and not a federal or immigration detention facility.
The distinction affects every lookup and contact step. Adult JailTracker records are built around adult booking and current-jail custody. Juvenile custody information is governed by DJJ procedures, juvenile-court confidentiality, family authorization, and attorney access rules. A parent or guardian trying to schedule a visit should follow the DJJ visitation instructions, while a member of the public should not expect a public roster comparable to the adult jail's current-inmates list.
The DJJ facilities overview says Kentucky secure juvenile detention centers provide on-site academic programming, counseling, medical and mental-health care, and assessment. Those services are part of the custody environment and help explain why the McCracken facility page discusses education wings, barriers youth face, and structured family visitation rather than adult commissary, bond, or JailTracker fields.
McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center Capacity
The official DJJ McCracken page provides a sourced capacity figure for this facility. It says the center can house a maximum of 43 males and serves low-level male juveniles charged with a Class D felony or lesser offense. This is one of the strongest published population facts in the McCracken County facility map, and it should not be blended with the adult jail's dynamic roster or any adult state-prison count.
The adult county jail capacity was not located in official adult jail sources during research, but the juvenile facility capacity was published by DJJ. Keeping those numbers separate prevents a common records error: treating every detention bed in Paducah as part of the same public adult jail population.
How to Confirm a Youth at McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center
There is no public adult-style JailTracker lookup for McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center. The correct starting point is the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice facility page and authorized family, guardian, attorney, or court communication. Juvenile detention records and visits are limited by DJJ policy and juvenile-court confidentiality, so a general public search should not be expected to produce the same open profile fields that appear for adult jail inmates.
- Start with the official DJJ facility page for McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center.
- If you are a parent, guardian, or grandparent, follow the DJJ instruction to call the morning of visitation before arriving.
- Use the youth's attorney, juvenile court, or assigned DJJ contact for case-specific custody questions when public information is restricted.
- Do not use the adult McCracken County JailTracker roster for juvenile detention confirmation.
- For adult custody connected to McCracken County, use the adult jail page or KDOC KOOL depending on whether the person is locally jailed or sentenced to state custody.
The Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice posts the official facility profile here: McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center.
The DJJ page is the appropriate public source for this facility's capacity, history, visitation window, and leadership information. It is not a public booking-photo or adult inmate-roster source.
McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center Address and Contact
The inspected DJJ page publishes the facility's address but did not publish a facility phone number on that page. Because no phone was located in the inspected official source, no local direct number is listed here. Families should use the DJJ page, their court contact, assigned DJJ contact, or the visitation scheduling instructions provided by DJJ rather than relying on an invented number.
McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center
500 County Park Road
Paducah, KY 42001
Phone not published on inspected DJJ page
Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice secure juvenile detention facility.
The Louisville virtual visitation station listed by DJJ is a separate access point for families without electronic-device access. It is located at 8711 LaGrange Rd., Building E, Louisville, KY 40242, and appointments are made by calling 502-423-2206.
Visiting Someone at McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center
DJJ publishes a fixed family visitation schedule for the McCracken juvenile facility. Parents, guardians, and grandparents must call the morning of visitation to be scheduled and should arrive 15 minutes early. The listed hours include holidays. Because youth custody and visitation are more restricted than adult jail visitation, eligible family members should confirm current approval, identity requirements, and any case-specific limits before travel.
| Day | Hours | Type and scheduling |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday | 4:00-5:00 p.m. | DJJ juvenile visitation; parents, guardians, and grandparents call the morning of visitation. |
| Thursday | 4:00-5:00 p.m. | DJJ juvenile visitation; arrive 15 minutes early. |
| Saturday | 1:30-2:30 p.m. | DJJ juvenile visitation, including holidays. |
| Sunday | 1:30-2:30 p.m. | DJJ juvenile visitation, including holidays. |
| Monday-Friday | 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Eastern | Virtual visitation station in Louisville for families without device access; call 502-423-2206 for appointment. |
The Louisville station is not the detention center's Paducah address. It is an access station for eligible families who need a device location for virtual visitation, so travel plans should distinguish between visiting the Paducah facility and using the Louisville DJJ station.
Mail, Phone, and Money at McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center
The inspected DJJ McCracken page did not publish an adult-style commissary vendor, money-deposit platform, phone-card schedule, mail-processing address, or fee schedule for the juvenile facility. That is expected for a secure juvenile detention setting, where communication and property rules are managed through DJJ, the youth's case status, and family authorization rather than the adult jail's public commissary and phone-card system.
| Topic | Published detail | How to handle it |
|---|---|---|
| No mail format located on inspected DJJ McCracken page | Ask the facility, assigned DJJ contact, or youth's attorney before sending items. | |
| Phone | No public phone-card or adult inmate-phone vendor listed | Use DJJ and case-specific instructions for family communication. |
| Money or commissary | No public juvenile commissary deposit rule located | Do not apply the adult jail's CareACell, kiosk, or postal money-order rules to this facility. |
| Records | Juvenile confidentiality applies | Use DJJ, juvenile court, or attorney channels for authorized information. |
The adult McCracken County Regional Jail has a published commissary, deposit, and phone-fee structure. Those adult rules should not be copied onto the juvenile facility page unless DJJ publishes the same rule for this specific center.
Juvenile Intake, Care, and Confidentiality
Intake at a secure juvenile detention center is not the same as adult booking at the county jail. DJJ detention involves court-ordered juvenile custody, assessment, supervision, and services for youth. The DJJ facilities overview describes secure juvenile detention centers as providing on-site academic programming, counseling, medical and mental-health care, and assessment. Those services are tied to juvenile needs and court involvement rather than adult bond, work release, or public mugshot display.
Confidentiality is the practical rule for records users. Juvenile matters may involve parents, guardians, attorneys, judges, DJJ staff, and authorized agencies, but they are not normally presented through open public adult jail records. If the question is whether a youth is detained, whether a visit can occur, or which court controls the matter, the reliable path is the authorized family, attorney, court, or DJJ channel. Public adult jail pages may help explain the county detention map, but they should not be used to infer juvenile custody details.
Facility History and Youth Services
The DJJ page says McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center was founded or constructed in 1999. A 2001 renovation added an education wing and reception area. Those details are important because they show the facility was built and later expanded around juvenile detention operations rather than converted into a generic local jail annex.
The same DJJ profile states that staff work to understand barriers juveniles face and instruct youth on ways to move past those barriers. Combined with the statewide DJJ overview of academic programming, counseling, health care, mental-health care, and assessment, the facility's role is best understood as short-term secure juvenile detention with services, supervision, and court-connected structure. It is still a detention facility, but its public-information model is different from an adult booking roster.
About McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center
The official DJJ page identifies Byron Jasis as superintendent or facility manager, serving since March 2026. His DJJ biography says he began in corrections at Kentucky State Penitentiary in 1982, later worked as assistant director and director of Keeton Corrections in Paducah, joined DJJ in 2025 as deputy facility manager, and became superintendent in March 2026. That leadership detail is the most specific recent official correctional update located for this facility.
McCracken County's detention map therefore has two very different local facilities: the adult McCracken County Regional Jail downtown on Clarence Gaines Street and the state-operated juvenile center on County Park Road. For countywide context and adult roster routing, the McCracken County inmate population hub separates those channels so adult jail, juvenile detention, KDOC, federal, and ICE questions do not get mixed together.
Note: Confirm visit eligibility, youth custody, and current DJJ scheduling instructions through authorized family, court, attorney, or DJJ channels before traveling.