CONNECTICUT DEBATE: SECURE ACCOMMODATION

Agency Rethinks Ways To Replace Training School

State child welfare officials are rethinking plans to replace the troubled Connecticut Juvenile Training School with three smaller facilities scattered around the state.

The 220-bed school, which many liken to a medium-security youth prison, is scheduled to close by 2008 as Gov. M. Jodi Rell has ordered.

"That has not changed," said Gary Kleeblatt, a spokesman for the Department of Children and Families.

But a preliminary plan to replace the training school in Middletown with two 45-bed, high-security facilities for boys and a separate 12-bed, high-security facility for girls is being reviewed.

Kleeblatt said the size of the proposed centers for boys may be reduced and there be more than two. The agency is also hiring a consultant to examine whether a high-security facility for girls is necessary or whether the girls can instead be housed in specialized foster care and group homes.

"The governor has made it clear that we are going to be flexible in all the details of this plan," Kleeblatt said.

A growing number of state legislators have joined child advocates in expressing concerns about the size and scope of the replacement centers, the rush of planning and the cost.

DCF officials estimate the new facilities will cost between $23 million and $40 million depending on whether existing buildings are renovated or new ones are built.

Legislators, still stinging from the failed $57 million dollar investment in the training school, want to avoid unnecessary spending and past mistakes. The training school was built on a construction "fast-track," which critics said didn't leave time to properly plan programs and doomed the facility from the start.

"I want to make sure we don't jump from one failed facility to another without doing the proper research and analysis," said Sen. Gayle S. Slossberg, D-Milford, who toured the training school Friday. "I don't think we've done that. Before we spend one penny more, we need to determine what kind of programming will best serve these kids."

A recent U.S. Department of Justice report shows that large, high-security facilities are less effective in reducing recidivism among juvenile delinquents than are smaller community-based centers with 20 or fewer beds. By remaining in or near their home communities delinquent youth retain important support from their family and schools, the study said.

Separating youth from their local surroundings and placing them in large institutions make rehabilitation much harder, the study said. Recidivism rates at the training school are reported to be as high as 50 percent.

"There needs to be further refined thinking on the size and number of boys' facilities," said Martha Stone, director of the Center for Children's Advocacy at the University of Connecticut School of Law. "I think they should carefully look at three smaller facilities that are close to where these kids are. Local education, home-based support and community services is where the current national trend is."

Stone said she would like to see facilities no larger than 25 beds. She also would like to see DCF increase development of specialized foster homes for both boys and girls.

"I think there are a lot more creative ways to deliver programs and services to the existing constellation of girls," Stone said.

State Rep. Toni Walker D-New Haven, said the needs of children should dictate the size and scope of the new treatment centers rather than an architect's or state official's particular vision.

"We need to strengthen our programs before we start designing more buildings," Walker said.

Walker would like herself and other legislators to be more involved in the planning. State Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein has also expressed concerns about DCF moving too quickly in planning for the 45-bed facilities and without broad consensus.

Engineers with the Department of Public Works are already sketching out costs for the 45-bed facilities, including square-footage for classrooms, clinical rooms and offices. Kleeblatt said the work will help the agency further refine its cost estimates and the plans can be easily adjusted and scaled back.

But Milstein and others remain concerned that DCF may be rushing. In a letter to DCF Commissioner Darlene Dunbar earlier this month, Milstein urged DCF to slow down and get more people involved.

"The planning and development of the new facilities to replace the Connecticut Juvenile Training School ... appears to be moving forward without enough consideration of what the children need," Milstein wrote in a letter dated Sept. 9.

Francis Mendez, DCF's director of program development for juvenile services, said the agency is re-establishing the juvenile justice advisory group that drafted the original training school replacement plan.

In addition, DCF has scheduled meetings with individual legislators and committee leaders to hear their concerns and to keep them informed on the agency's progress, according to Debra Korta, DCF's legislative program manager.

The Department of Public Works is still looking at possible locations for the smaller replacement facilities.

Colin Poitras
September 26, 2005

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