a public defender

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Gov. Rell announced yesterday that she will be closing the ailing "Juvenile Training School" and replacing it with two smaller schools for boys and one for girls. The school was built as an upgrade over longlane and was said to be more secure - and as upgrades go - better all around. [For more on the design of the school, click here.] However, it has always been plagued with scandal and problems. For example, see this report

This investigation revealed numerous deficiencies at CJTS in numerous areas. This is especially troubling since CJTS is a brand new facility, having opened in August 2001, which cost the State of Connecticut $57 million to build and which was supposed to be a “state of the art” facility.

Among other things, children on "safety watches" are not monitored properly and some on 1:1 watches are able to harm themselves. On safety:

Generally, restraints are only supposed to be used when necessary to protect youth from injury to themselves or from injuring others. Restraints are specifically not supposed to be use for punishment, for convenience or as a substitute for programming. We found the following:

• Restraints were significantly over-utilized by staff at CJTS. At one point this even included utilization of restraints at the specific written direction of CJTS Superintendent Lesley Mara for youth threatening to or actually setting off the facility sprinkler system. We also learned of one instance of a 15-year-old youth in restraints 24 hours a day for 5 continuous days.
• The actual use of restraints was significantly underreported in facility records. This makes it appear as though restraints are used less than they are actually used. It also makes it extremely difficult to monitor what is going on at the facility.

Seclusion is only supposed to be used to prevent immediate or imminent injury to the youth or others, to prevent escape, or in an individual treatment plan. We found the following:

• Seclusion was used routinely at CJTS for inappropriate reasons. We found, for example, that seclusion was regularly used in the following manner: (1) youth were regularly locked in their rooms after school; (2) youth were regularly locked in their rooms during shift change; (3) youth were regularly locked in their rooms during treatment meetings; (4) youth were regularly locked in their rooms during morning and evening hygiene and shower periods; and, (5) youth in the general population unit were routinely secluded during their daily schedules for over one hour.
• The actual use of seclusion was significantly underreported in facility records. Seclusion used for administrative convenience was invariably never recorded in facility records. There were also examples of disciplinary seclusions not being recorded or reported. This makes it appear as though seclusion is used less than it really is at the facility.  As with restraints, often this underreporting makes it extremely difficult to monitor what is actually going on at the facility.

There’s LOTS more, so please read the report. In the January 2005 legislative session, the legislature considered a few bills regarding juvenile law, including this one on the future of the Training School.

The current building will be put to future use. The Gov. has asked the Department of Public Works to come up with alternate plans within the next 90 days. The current building cost $57 million to build. Estimates for the new prisons is between $23 million and $40 million.

State legislators were stunned to learn this year that it was costing taxpayers more than $500,000 per child per year to fill beds at the training school even though there was no guarantee any of the programs were working. A study by state Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, this year showed that more than half the boys leaving the training school were getting into trouble again within six months of their discharge.

It was only later that state officials realized members of Rowland’s administration sacrificed proper planning to "fast track" the project and award the construction bid to a politically connected contractor. Rowland’s decision to give the contract to the Tomasso corporation became the focus of a federal inquiry into questionable state contracts that led to Rowland’s resignation in June 2004.

For more on CT’s juvenile problems, visit the Juvenile Justice Alliance and the Office of the Child Advocate.