A group of family members with disabled relatives living at the state-run Southbury Training School are refuting a legislative report released earlier this year that found it cost up to 2.5 times more than contracting with private group homes.
In a letter to legislative leaders, the Southbury Training School and Home Association said the finding were comparing apples to oranges, and that the facility provides several services not available elsewhere. They also defend the higher wages the employees receive.
“Will the[y] therefore recommend that STS be closed because its employees receive good wages and benefits?” they letter asks.
Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.
