The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The budget unveiled last week sets aside $1 million in bond money to build a small, secure facility with four to six beds to serve the most troubled girls. A location has not yet been chosen.

Also included is money for three small group homes with four to six beds each for girls who need less restrictive settings. The idea is to help them connect with their communities by attending school and having jobs outside the facilities, which will be scattered across the state. Another 12 slots would be created for specialized foster care.

The judicial branch would get additional money for other programs to serve juvenile girls and boys.

Due to safety and security concerns, the state has had no secure facility for troubled girls in the three years since the coed Long Lane School closed.

Instead, many have gone to hospitals or privately run group homes. A few have been sent to the York Correctional Institution, an adult facility, for minor offenses such as running away from home or breach of peace.

"I think it's extremely traumatizing to send a girl to York Correctional," said Tammy Sneed, who oversees services for juvenile girls in the Department of Children and Families. "These girls really have significant traumas, and without addressing them we really just push them further into the system." DCF's juvenile services division oversees the treatment of about 500 children and teenagers, 115 of them female, who have been referred by judges. The agency also deals with hundreds of others on the verge of entering the court system.

The proposed budget also includes $5 million to start planning and acquiring land for new regional treatment centers to replace the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, which houses boys. Rell has given DCF until 2008 to close the school, which cost $57 million to build and has been plagued with problems since it opened in 2001.

The president of the union that represents former Long Lane and current training school workers said Rell's proposal is a good start, though she would like to see more beds in the secure facility.

"When we saw it was in the budget, we were delighted," said Sandy Dearborn, president of public employees union AFSCME Local 2663. "The workers are saying the girls really need a place. They deserve a place. If they're in that much emotional turmoil, they need to know there's a safe place for them."

Girls walk away from the group homes where they are now housed, Dearborn said, and the facilities can refuse to take them back.

"We're delighted that they're finally recognizing it, but we're wishing it was a lot more," she said.

Don Devore, director of juvenile services for DCF, said agency officials hope devoting resources to smaller group homes will eliminate the need for more restrictive facilities.

"It's clear that the more money we can put into the development of community supports for our girls, the less actual money and time that we'll have to put into the secure, expensive end of things," he said.

Jeanne Milstein, the state's child advocate, worked with Devore and a federal court monitor to develop recommendations for juvenile girls after Long Lane closed. She said she is excited about Rell's proposal because changes have been too long in coming.

"It seems like what they're proposing does address the needs," she said. "For a handful of girls, and I stress a handful, there is a need for a treatment environment that is secure, because there are too many girls spending extraordinary amounts of time in detention, in prison, on the streets."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/02/12/proposed_bu
dget_would_fund_juvenile_facility_for_girls/