FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, December 15, 2023
CONTACT
Ali Oshinskie
860-707-6810
RELEASE: Connecticut Justice Alliance condemns the Judicial Branch's plan to re-open the Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS)
The plan to transfer children under 18 in DOC custody to a renovated CJTS will further harm children and will reverse years of legal system reform.
Milford, CT (Friday, December 15) - The Connecticut Justice Alliance (CTJA) condemns a plan released today by the Judicial Branch to re-open the Connecticut Juvenile Training School to house incarcerated youth, under 18 years old, who are currently in the custody of the Department of Correction (DOC).
According to Christina Quaranta, Executive Director of CTJA, this plan demonstrates a complete disregard for the lives of these youth, reverses progress on youth legal reform, and wastes taxpayer money.
The Connecticut Judicial Branch released a plan, pursuant to Sec. 4 of Public Act 23-188, AAC Juvenile Justice for the “full and final transition of all children from the care and custody of the Department of Correction and into the care and custody of the Judicial Branch.”
As part of the ongoing legislative effort to remove children from Manson Youth Institution and York Correctional Institution, Department of Correction facilities, PA 23-188 required the Judicial Branch to formulate this plan.
The plan shows the Judicial Branch plans to re-open the Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS), a facility closed April 12, 2018 after years of horrific reports of staff abuse, self-harm, and suicide attempts. CJTS used traumatizing methods of restraint, limited family time for youth, and did not provide emotional or mental health support to the children. In short, children leaving CJTS were not rehabilitated and were harmed.
“This plan does not represent an authentic change in the youth legal system like the legislation we worked so hard to pass intended,” said Christina Quaranta, Executive Director of the Connecticut Justice Alliance. “We know that prisons –particularly isolating, large group settings– do not work to rehabilitate children. The idea that the best that Connecticut can do when tasked with rehousing and rehabilitating young people is to house them in a large, 65-bed facility when data shows that small, close-to-home settings work much better, is a shame and a waste of an opportunity to meet the needs of young people and their communities.”
Connecticut youth are subjected to high recidivism rates, as high as 73 percent, which indicates that the time youth spend incarcerated or detained is not addressing the root causes of their behavior or rehabilitating them. The cost of the average stay – of 185 days– in a youth prison facility is $281,080, according to the Judicial Branch: Court Support Services Division.
“Faced with an urgent need to move all youth to an age-appropriate facility, Connecticut’s slow-moving plan wouldn’t address this crisis for another 10 years,” said Joshua Rovner, Director of Youth Justice at The Sentencing Project. “Manson Youth Institution is the only adult facility in New England, New York, and New Jersey that holds teenagers under 18. The plan does not take steps to minimize the number of confined youth or the number charged as if they were adults. Incarceration of youth with adults, disproportionately affecting youth of color, increases the chance of reoffending and damages children’s lives in myriad ways, including shorter life expectancy. The state should invest in small facilities that prioritize humane treatment by staff with cultural competence, including formerly incarcerated people, who can be credible messengers in helping young people address the challenges that led to court involvement.”
Connecticut Justice Alliance would like to see the State of Connecticut develop 4 small, homelike facilities that are close to the neighborhoods were youth are from, similar to the REGIONS facilities, modeled after successful programs like New York’s Close To Home. This plan notes that while the plan to re-open CJTS goes forward, the Judicial Branch will redouble its efforts to identify smaller, less restrictive alternatives, like REGIONS facilities.
“Connecticut residents should be furious that $66 million of taxpayer money is going into a plan that will fail to improve public safety and fail to get youth back on the right track,” said Marcy Mistrett, Director of Restorative Justice Partnerships at Equal Justice USA. “Those funds should instead be used to build a small 12 -15 bed facility focused on healing and recovery, while the rest is used to support community crisis centers, which would support children before they touch the legal system. That is a responsible use of taxpayer money, not reopening a child prison over a ten-year span.”
CTJA would like to see community listening sessions held with those currently and formerly incarcerated at Manson Youth Institution and York Correctional Institution to fully understand the needs of this group of young people. Input from the Correctional Officers, and Wardens of both prisons, would be valuable as well. The $66 million in funds allocated to repurpose the former CJTS should be used to bolster preventative services for young people and their families, including education, preventative health care, behavioral & mental health care, transportation, nutrition, and diversion programs.
ABOUT THE CONNECTICUT JUSTICE ALLIANCE
The Connecticut Justice Alliance (CTJA) is a youth/adult partnership working to end the criminalization of youth. The Alliance works to disrupt and dismantle the pathways that funnel children and youth into the youth legal system by using organizing, advocacy, and policy tools to protect the rights, futures, and well-being of potentially, currently, and formerly incarcerated youth, while also ensuring youth who are detained, incarcerated, and involved in the courts and legal systems receive safe, fair, and dignified treatment. CTJA was formerly known as the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance
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