Connecticut lawmakers, advocates and representatives from the corrections system voted on Thursday to approve a plan that would reform the state’s juvenile justice system.
The plan would help lawmakers decide how convicted children will be treated over the next three years. It lays groundwork for a therapeutic rehabilitation that would start in school.
Bill Carbone, who leads the Tow Youth Justice Initiative at University of New Haven, told lawmakers that kids’ futures are at stake.
“We’ve done a lot to improve the juvenile justice system...but I don’t think we’re going to see the big differences in recidivism, eliminating some of the disproportionate minority representation that we see there...until we have some kind of a consolidated system so these kids stop falling through the cracks.”
The chair of the Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee that voted on the plan says the next step would be to write legislation.
The governor’s budget director warned against this idea because of the state’s money problems.