A group of prominent state lawmakers are not convinced that relying on locked facilities, which is the direction DCF seems to be headed in, is what’s best for these young offenders,
Joette Katz
Posted inEducation
Boys in jail in Connecticut at a 10-year high (Part 1)
As DCF appears to be increasingly dependent on locked facilities to deal with troubled juveniles, some lawmakers are expressing concern about the planned new girls’ facility, and advocates and some lawyers are questioning the direction the state is heading.
Posted inEducation
Top CT budget lawmaker: Where’s money for social workers?
The millions of dollars DCF has saved from decreasing the number of children living in group homes or being sent out-of-state are almost entirely funneled to other areas of the governor’s proposed budget.
Posted inNews
Child Protection: A system crying for change
The Connecticut Department of Children and Families has adopted a “differential response system” that allows its caseworkers more flexibility in reacting to various kinds of child abuse and neglect, depending on the risk to the family. Families and staff say this new kind of intervention is more effective, satisfying and respectful.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Child Protection: A system crying for change
The Connecticut Department of Children and Families has adopted a “differential response system” that allows its caseworkers more flexibility in reacting to various kinds of child abuse and neglect, depending on the risk to the family. Families and staff say this new kind of intervention is more effective, satisfying and respectful.
Posted inEducation
Will locking up troubled girls help? State aims to find out with new Middletown facility
The new girls detention facility in Middletown The state’s child welfare agency will open a new state-run facility in January to lock up girls who break the law –- a decision that has generated mixed reactions from those who work most closely with these children. The facility that the Department of Children and Families will […]
Posted inEducation
DCF wants to open new facility in Middletown to incarcerate girls
The state’s child welfare agency is gearing up to open a new state-run facility in Middletown to incarcerate girls who break the law, a move that child advocates say is troubling. “I wish we didn’t need this,” Joette Katz, commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, told private providers last month when announcing the […]
Posted inEducation
Will Katz’s efforts be enough to reform Connecticut’s child protection agency?
DCF Commissioner Joette Katz talk with some older youth in state custody. When Joette Katz was tapped to lead the state agency that has been under a federal court order for decades for failing too many of the state’s abused and neglected foster children, child advocates and lawmakers were delighted. The former state Supreme Court […]
Posted inEducation, Health
Supreme Court: DCF gets to decide placement for delinquent children
The Connecticut Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that judges can no longer send children who break the law to treatment facilities out of state. The decision follows a move by state legislators last month to change the law to make clear who they want making these decisions — the commissioner of the Department of Children […]
Posted inEducation
Sending children to live out-of-state: Whose decision is it?
Unconvinced that Connecticut boys who have broken the law are being properly treated when they are sent to live at Glen Mills School in Pennsylvania for rehabilitation, officials at the state’s child welfare agency have decided to stop sending children there. “That’s it, we’re done,” Department of Children and Families Commissioner Joette Katz told a […]
Posted inEducation
To mixed reviews, DCF curtailing out-of-state placements
Frank Gregory, the director of treatment at CCP: 'We are getting it ready now for more children.' For years, the Department of Children and Families has left beds unfilled at its two psychiatric facilities while sending hundreds of children out-of-state, an expensive and criticized practice. This summer, DCF is bringing some of those children home […]
Posted inEducation
On inaugural tour of DCF, Katz urges staff to risk change
DCF Commissioner Joette Katz having dinner at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School The young men having dinner with Joette Katz recently may not have had fond memories of their own courtroom experiences, but they couldn’t help but be impressed with her stories of life as a judge. “Oh man, that’s what I want to be. […]