Connecticut’s Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee discussed a proposal on Thursday for the state to spend roughly $67 million renovating and reopening a former heavily scrutinized prison-like facility for children that closed in 2018.
In its monthly meeting at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, the diverse body of state officials, law enforcement and advocates who evaluate policy related to children in the criminal legal system shared their thoughts and concerns about the proposal from the Judicial Branch’s Court Support Services Division.
Prior to the discussion, the Department of Social Services notified committee members about the state’s new effort to expand Medicaid coverage to include people who are nearing the end of their incarceration.
Much of the meeting, however, focused on the Judicial Branch’s proposition. If implemented, the plan would lead to the restoration of the property in Middletown, formerly known as the Connecticut Juvenile Training School. Officials closed the Department of Children and Families-managed state facility for boys in 2018 following years of complaints and an investigation into the abuse and neglect of the children housed there.
The proposal materialized after the passage of a law that mandated the Judicial Branch to review and update plans for securely accommodating individuals under the age of 18 who have been arrested and detained before sentencing or disposition. Those individuals are currently under the supervision of the Department of Correction.
The workgroup of state officials and advocates behind the proposal met seven times between August and November of last year, they said. They toured the Middletown property and searched for other options. They also surveyed social workers, public defenders, prosecutors and judges to solicit feedback on the current challenges facing the children in focus.
Officials determined that the Judicial Branch could likely accommodate the small number of girls in DOC custody before their sentencing. But they settled on a need for additional housing for roughly 50 boys with cases pending in adult court, and they said they were unable to identify any other locations that could assist.
The process could take more than a decade and the project could cost the state more than $67 million, once operating costs for the new facility are also factored in. But the reimagined facility wouldn’t be like the last, officials said, adding that it would be centered on educational, therapeutic and vocational services for the state’s most vulnerable children.
“There is a real concern about just sort of repeating the past,” said Catherine Foley Geib, the director of Juvenile Clinical, Education & Residential Services in the Judicial Branch. “And that’s certainly not what the branch wants to do and certainly is not the intention of the JJPOC.”
Several members of the oversight committee, including the co-chair, Rep. Toni Walker, urged members to focus on improving the lives of the children. The problem wasn’t the building, the members said, but rather the lack of programming and the lack of a sufficient model for intervention.
“I’m not as focused on CJTS as I am finding a facility that gives our kids a better opportunity,” said Walker, D-New Haven, who also chairs the legislature’s powerful budget writing committee.
The juvenile training school was central to the bid-rigging scandal that forced former Gov. John G. Rowland from office and landed him in prison. Modeled after a facility in Ohio, criminal justice and child welfare experts considered it obsolete from its opening in 2001.
It was subject to significant public concern about its training, programming and disciplinary practices. Prior to the facility’s closing, the Office of the Child Advocate released videos depicting children there being forcibly restrained and dragged into solitary confinement, where some attempted to injure themselves.
OCA’s investigation, led by Child Advocate Sarah Eagan, who on Thursday expressed interest in seeing what a study of the renovation would reveal, outlined more problems. That included a lack of suicide prevention protocols, prolonged use of closed-door seclusion and a culture of abuse that tolerated harassment and derogatory treatment. As recent as last year, advocates called for the demolition of the building.
The history was not lost on Christina Quaranta, the executive director of the Connecticut Justice Alliance, who questioned the committee about why the state would study and potentially rebuild what was previously ineffective.
“There’s many pieces and reasons why having one large facility doesn’t make sense, and it doesn’t necessarily focus around what it used to be called or the address,” said Quaranta, who was part of the Judicial Branch’s workgroup and opposed the recommendation. “I think that we could do better. And we should have had young people on that committee giving input. … They’re paying attention; they are disappointed in the outcome.”
The proposal will now go to lawmakers, who could opt to introduce a bill during the next legislative session, which starts on Feb. 7, to fund a study of the renovation. The study could last roughly 18–24 months and cost up to $1 million, according to the proposal.
Prior to the discussion about the training school, a representative from the state’s Department of Social Services shared with the committee the agency’s desire to “turn on” Medicaid eligibility for youth and adults up to 90 days prior to their release from incarceration.
Incarcerated people are mostly ineligible for Medicaid, unless the individual leaves a correctional facility for more than 24 hours to receive inpatient medical care.
Officials said the Medicaid waiver, which California and Washington state have successfully sought, would improve transition-based services for all people behind bars, the overwhelming majority of whom struggle with mental health and/or substance abuse.
“We are doing as many public meetings as we can to make sure people are aware of this exciting opportunity for the state,” said William Halsey, the agency’s deputy director of Medicaid and Division Health Services.
The legislature would first have to authorize a waiver application for the federal government to approve, then later vote to appropriate the necessary funding, according toHearst Connecticut. Halsey said the agency may provide the committee with a more in-depth presentation in February or March.
He said DSS is hoping for approval from the federal government by December.
