Staff at the Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire, which houses serious offenders younger than 21, say they’ve been injured more often on the job. And they're blaming new disciplinary policies.
Sarah Eagan, Connecticut’s child advocate, says she’s working on a study to address the issue.
“The issues that we’re looking at very closely are about discipline procedures, discipline response, the rate of incidents, what type of incidents there are, how youth are engaged in incidents are handled.”
Eagan was speaking at a Juvenile Justice committee meeting at the Capitol in Hartford on Thursday. She says the study asks facilities that deal with juvenile offenders about their use of physical restraints and risk of suicides.
Eagan plans to release the report later this summer. Lawmakers called for the report two years ago, after Eagan’s investigation found that staff at the former Connecticut Juvenile Training School were putting youth in face-down restraints and locking some in solitary confinement for days on end.
