The Connecticut Democratic Party staged a public-relations offensive in court Tuesday with a challenge to the authority of state elections regulators and a rebuttal of Republican allegations of illegal spending to support the re-election of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
Justice
Stories about the justice system in Connecticut: Law enforcement, courts, prisons and offenders, immigration, juvenile justice, and public corruption.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Health, Justice, Money, Politics, Transportation
Democrats: Suspend public financing of elections, cut transportation and local aid
The leaders of the legislature’s Democratic majority Monday recommended suspending the state’s public-financing of elections for 2016, cutting social services and retreating from two major initiatives on transportation and municipal aid.
Posted inJustice
AG’s office says claims in limbo over missed deadlines
Eight plaintiffs, including the children of a couple killed eight years ago by a falling tree on the Merritt Parkway, were told Monday their claims against the state are in a legal limbo as the result of procedural errors by Claims Commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr.
Posted inEducation, Health, Justice, Money, Politics
Malloy pitches $350M in cuts; GOP wants mix of cuts, labor savings
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy presented legislators Thursday with almost $350 million in budget-cutting options that would fall heavily on social services, education and municipal aid, according to documents obtained by The Mirror. Meanwhile, leaders of the legislature’s Republican minority offered an array of spending cuts and new restrictions on state employees’ wages and benefits, all of which presumably would require negotiations with labor unions.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Inside the embattled Connecticut Juvenile Training School
There’s no question CJTS is a locked facility. But don’t call it a jail, said Superintendent William Rosenbeck. “The rooms do lock. This is a secure facility — a facility that has a dual mission to rehabilitate, and not to punish,” he said.
Posted inJustice
Malloy goes extra mile to thank, challenge these vets
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy thanked his audience of veterans for their service in the preservation of liberty. Malloy caught himself and said, “That sounds a little weird, talking about freedom in a facility like this.” Some of the men nodded. A few smiled. All were prison inmates.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Malloy: Raise the age for juvenile justice system to 20
In a major policy speech Friday at a criminal-justice symposium, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed overhauling Connecticut’s bail system and making the state the first in the U.S. to treat defendants as juveniles up to age 20. Both proposals could significantly lower incarceration rates.
Posted inEducation, Justice
CSCU seeks funding to offer college degrees to inmates
The state’s largest public college system is asking the federal government to fund degree-granting programs in nine of the state’s prisons. The programs would help inmates successfully return to society and boost falling enrollment at the state’s community colleges.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Court upholds post-Newtown gun laws in Conn., N.Y.
A federal appeals court Monday upheld the central provisions of the sweeping gun control laws passed by the New York and Connecticut legislatures in response to the mass murders of 26 children and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
Posted inJustice
A bittersweet day for Second Chances in New Haven
NEW HAVEN – Waiting for the governor to arrive for the press conference about criminal justice reform, Police Chief Dean Esserman talked shop with Michael P. Lawlor, the governor’s criminal justice adviser. There had been a homicide the previous night, a young man shot on the street.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Justice, Politics
Blumenthal keeps his consumer focus with a shot at VW
The Volkswagen scandal is the latest consumer issue seized on by Richard Blumenthal, who has made consumer protection a priority in his five years in the U.S. Senate, much as he did during his 20 years as Connecticut’s attorney general.
Posted inJustice, Money
Foundations provide reprieve for laid-off legal-aid lobbyists
Grants from the Melville Charitable Trust and two anonymous family foundations will help give Connecticut’s poor at least one more legislative session represented by lobbyists for the state’s cash-strapped legal-aid groups. But the long-term financial prospects of legal-aid remain precarious.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Youth service officers: We are not abusing kids in jail
Staff from CJTS speak out against reports on conditions inside the state-run jails A state investigation that uncovered improper use of restraint and seclusion at Connecticut’s juvenile correction facilities left out one important element, front line staff members say: their voices. “We cannot and will not be portrayed as the enemy or the abuser of […]
Posted inEducation, Justice
The state of Connecticut juvenile incarceration in 17 charts
Each year about 3,000 children enter Connecticut’s juvenile justice system after being convicted of breaking the law. Here, in graphical form, is a historical overview of what happens to youth after they are found guilty, including details on the jails where about 200 youths each year are sent to live.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Few disciplined over restraints, seclusion in juvenile jails
There were only two cases during the 12-month period ending June 30 in which the Department of Children and Families moved to discipline staff for improperly restraining a youth at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School for boys or the neighboring Pueblo Unit for girls.