"We're not locking these kids up and throwing them in their rooms."
Sarah Lewoc
This week, state lawmakers on the Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee will meet again to discuss child welfare issues in Connecticut. One of the questions before them is whether the state should continue operating its locked facilities for juveniles in Middletown.
Discussions about closing the Connecticut Juvenile Training School for boys have come up many times over the years since it first opened in 2001. And naturally these talks are troubling for DCF staff who work daily with the youth, many of the kids have experienced trauma in their lives.
Sarah Lewoc is a youth services officer at the Juvenile Training School. "We really feel that we do the best job we can do, and we do a great job for the kids that are there," she said.
Lewoc is a member of AFSME Local 2663. She said DCF workers are still upset about video excerpts released by the Office of Child Advocate that showed instances when staff used face down restraints and secluded youth after confrontations. She said the excerpts didn't tell the whole story.
"We're not locking these kids up and throwing them in their rooms and not giving them the nurturing that they need. Kids build relationships with the staff," Lewoc said. "They leave, and if something happens in the community and they come back, they're happy to be back."
How often these youth are sent back and what community interventions are not working needs to be examined, said Child Advocate Sarah Eagan. Eagan stressed she's respectful of the efforts of individual workers at the Juvenile Training School and the Pueblo unit for girls. But improvements must be made.
"CJTS can't exist in a vacuum and couldn't close in a vacuum if policy makers ultimately decide what they want to do," Eagan said. "The functioning and maintenance of institutional programs, whether residential treatment programs or juvenile incarceration facility, have to be based on something that shows these programs are effective but also where do they fit in in the continuum of care."
It costs the state more than $30 million a year to operate the locked juvenile units. Youth are sent there through the court system, or if there aren't other community programs available to help them.
