Connecticut’s turnaround of troubled juvenile system sets a standard, says justice-equity organization

Times were tough at the Hartford Juvenile Detention Center in 2016. Layoffs had slashed the staff of the Connecticut facility by more than one-third, and the remaining employees were taking out their stress on the children detained at the center as they awaited trial.

Disagreements between employees and detainees that previously were more likely to have been brushed off flared into more serious encounters. Increasingly, children were being restrained and demoralized employees were skipping work at the center, run at the time by the state’s Department of Children and Families. Worker compensation claims quadrupled from 18 in 2017 to 72 in 2019.

“If you have a lot of staff who have to work double shifts, you have more staff who are tired and frustrated, and that affects the kids,” said Catherine Foley Geib, deputy director of the Connecticut Judicial Branch, which took over responsibility for sentenced youths at Hartford and the state’s other juvenile detention facilities in 2018. “They’re not feeling good and so they’re not treating the kids as well.”

But Connecticut has since turned its troubled juvenile facilities into what federal officials have cited as exemplary national models. Staffing is up dramatically, in part because directors talked to employees about their worries and took steps to solve them. The strategy helped reduce confrontations and brought the Hartford center national recognition this year from Performance-based Standards, which works to improve juvenile justice outcomes and equity.

The Hartford detention center now shares space with a residential treatment center for youth who have been convicted of crimes, part of a 2018 overhaul of the state’s juvenile justice system. Counselors and other mental health professionals who previously had little contact with residents now meet regularly to help them rehabilitate.

The focus on intensive counseling is part of Connecticut’s Re-Entry, Goal-oriented, Individualized, Opportunity to Nurture Success program, or REGIONS. The program’s secure portion, for children convicted of serious crimes, has room for 34 boys at a time spread across Hartford, Bridgeport and Hamden, plus 12 spots for girls at a facility in Mansfield Center.

Amping up rehab, mental health efforts

Connecticut is one of several states trying to find better ways to make sure a youthful infraction doesn’t haunt children the rest of their lives, said Nina Salomon, deputy division director for corrections and re-entry with the Council of State Governments’ Justice Center. 

The focus on mental health “is part and parcel of the goal of what they’re trying to accomplish: trying to set kids up for success after release from the facility,” Salomon said. “A lot of states are moving toward that.”

Texas officials, for instance, are swapping out their existing juvenile detention facilities with juvenile treatment centers that accommodate a smaller tally of youth at one time, in part to keep children closer to home. California is closing almost all its state-run juvenile prisons and charging its 58 counties with rehabilitating youth. And Missouri has closed its larger youth facilities in favor of smaller treatment centers.

The Performance-based Standards team found that Connecticut had achieved remarkable results with its new approach, despite staffing shortages and the unique challenge of squeezing the treatment center into a detention facility that wasn’t designed for long-term confinement. Employees in Hartford seemed to understand the children in their care, said Joyce Burrell, of Performance-based Standards. She observed Connecticut’s operations.

“There’s a focus on knowing who the kids are and their needs. I was impressed with that. I can’t say I had the same grasp of all my kids. I knew the trouble-makers.” said Burrell, who’d previously spent 25 years providing technical, research and other assistance for state and federal agencies implementing justice reforms and as a former deputy commissioner of the New York State Department of Children and Family Services. 

The individualized approach, Burrell said, shows the value of dialectical behavior therapy, which focuses on how emotions affect actions. In Hartford, residents involved in a dispute – rather than being confined to their rooms as they previously would have been – are asked to write out how the situation developed and how they could have prevented it. They then probe the reasons why with a counselor before being allowed to return to the program.

Personal trauma drives some juveniles’ crime

Much of the strategy stems from a recognition that a disproportionate number of juveniles come from dysfunctional, often abusive homes and high-crime neighborhoods. Rather than resorting to the traditional prison setting of drab walls and bars, Connecticut allows residents to play air hockey or table tennis, and to have their own books, writing materials and even stuffed animals.

“Staff is getting really creative, making the space a little softer and more homey than most detention centers,” said Foley Geib, of the Connecticut Judicial Branch. “We’ve done a lot with paint, furniture, putting up murals.”

It’s important to give young offenders, some of whom have been convicted of murder or other serious crimes, a sense of hope that they have a future, Burrell said. The therapy prepares them for a more normal life, she said.

“This particular tool really works well with youngsters,” she said. “Some people would say it represents coddling kids, but it really pushes kids toward self-direction.”

A big part of the success stems from improving conditions for employees, said Giovanni Gagliardi, a deputy superintendent at the Hartford residential center. Staff anxiety and fear have declined dramatically in the past couple of years, he said, and intensive training has made the facility “a well-oiled machine.”

“They get to know the kids really well,” he said. “It’s kind of like a big family.”

Convicted youths are sentenced to the residential centers for indefinite terms and must prove to a team of counselors and other professionals, as well as to their own attorney and parents, that they have met their treatment goals and are ready for release.

Staff members are trained in a range of therapeutic methods, including skills such as mindfulness, distress tolerance and emotion regulation.  The tools used in the program have names such as self-soothe, opposite action and check the facts.

Constraints to making more changes

Connecticut’s innovative program has its challenges. 

Connecticut judicial leaders would like to provide more accommodating facilities to young offenders, perhaps with room to walk, swim, play basketball or even raise pigeons. But the treatment programs are stuck in cramped urban detention centers built to house people for a couple of weeks. Offenders can spend up to 30 months in a treatment center.

“When you’re talking about downtown Hartford, we don’t have those kinds of activities for them to spread their wings,” Gagliardi said.

The state never intended for the treatment centers to be in jails, at least not long-term. State law called on nonprofit organizations to run the facilities, but the judicial system has found it nearly impossible to attract interest. Just one organization, Community Partners in Action in Hamden, has agreed to run a secure REGIONS program.

Lawmakers will have to decide whether to switch gears and spend public money on a costly treatment center, Foley Geib said.

“We need a different approach. That’s where we are right now in Connecticut,” she said. “The state needs to go in a different direction.”

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Matt Krupnick is a Chicago-based journalist who covers inequality, education and other topics.