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State Child Advocate Questions the Effectiveness of Juvenile Incarceration

Chion Wolf
/
WNPR
Connecticut Child Advocate Sarah Eagan in a WNPR file photo.
Credit Connecticut DCF
/
Connecticut DCF
The Connecticut Juvenile Training School is located in Middletown, and houses anywhere from 80 to 140 juveniles on a regular basis.
Sarah Eagan received numerous complaints from staff members of the juvenile training facilities.

Earlier this week, the state Department of Children and Families took emergency steps to protect children incarcerated at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School and the Pueblo Girls Unit, including the phase out of face-down and mechanical restraints, expanded clinical staffing, and required counseling sessions when a youth is in isolation.

The measures are in response to a report by the state Office of the Child Advocate that found children were repeatedly and unlawfully restrained and secluded, and staff did not adequately prevent suicide attempts and self-injury at CJTS and Pueblo.

Speaking on WNPR's Where We Live, State Child Advocate Sarah Eagan applauded DCF's quick response, but wondered whether juvenile offenders can actually be rehabilitated in a maximum security facility.

“This facility was outdated when it opened. Nobody was building new juvenile prisons,” Eagan said. “Now, in the last 15 years, we’ve seen just a legion of research around the country from major organizations, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Department of Justice, all talking about not only the expense, but the futility and the harms of juvenile incarceration.”

Eagan pointed to Missouri's approach to rehabilitating youth offenders as an ideal model, where treatment happens in small, regional, therapeutic programs instead of large prison-like training schools.

“Missouri has some of the lowest costs per child for taxpayers, and one of the lowest recidivism rates in the country, if not the lowest,” Eagan said. 

The Connecticut Juvenile Training School and the Pueblo Girls Unit costs the the state about $30 million a year to operate.

Meanwhile lawmakers are holding hearings on juvenile detention conditions. Legislative leaders said they want the General Assembly to hear about problems at the state's juvenile detention facilities.

Senate President Martin Looney and House Speaker Brendan Sharkey announced Tuesday that they've asked the chairmen of several legislative committees to schedule the hearings in light of the OCA report. The date of the first hearing is expected to be announced soon.

This report includes information from The Associated Press.

Ray Hardman is Connecticut Public’s Arts and Culture Reporter. He is the host of CPTV’s Emmy-nominated original series Where Art Thou? Listeners to Connecticut Public Radio may know Ray as the local voice of Morning Edition, and later of All Things Considered.

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