While minor and technical adjustments to CT criminal justice policy were passed, bigger changes didn’t occur in the 2024 legislative session.
juvenile justice
Posted inJustice
CT justice bills to watch for in 2024 legislative session’s final month
The CT legislature is considering legislation surrounding drug sentencing, judicial selection, secondary traffic violations and more.
Posted inJustice
Republicans say crime is out of control. Democrats say it’s not. What do the data show?
The summer of car thefts entered a new season, with data to fuel the debate about crime sweeping the legislature.
Posted inJustice
On car thefts, Republicans focus on the anecdotal. Democrats emphasize data.
The debate about juvenile crime, while showing differences between the parties in style and substance, is hardly a new one.
Posted inPolitics
Keep youths out of the justice system, or hold them accountable? Judiciary committee advances bills that do both
Republicans were concerned about a provision in one bill that would erase certain juvenile records.
Posted inJustice
New report on juvenile justice features potential solutions from kids with firsthand experience
Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance releases 10 recommendations to make life more equitable for families living in marginalized communities.
Posted inJustice
Private providers explain why they haven’t bid on opening secure facilities for children
Contracts, funding and risk are among the reasons why almost no providers have bid to open secure programs for Connecticut’s most troubled youth.
Posted inJustice
Officials weigh massive changes in juvenile justice system
State officials will weigh a recommendation to create a new state agency for minors in the juvenile justice system.
Posted inJustice
After 22 years, educating incarcerated youth still a challenge
The state started trying to improve education in juvenile detention in 1993. It’s still trying.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
An inexcusable and costly failure to fund juvenile review boards
For years, legislators sang the praises of juvenile review boards, because community-based JRBs helped kids succeed more frequently– and more cheaply – than the juvenile justice system. But when the General Assembly moved juvenile justice from one state agency to another, it neglected to move the funding for JRBs that serve our largest cities. That means fewer second chances and fewer essential services – mainly for young people of color and from disadvantaged backgrounds. Our state frequently cannot find the money to support these youth, though the funding for the more expensive strategies of prosecution and even incarceration is never in short supply.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Republicans, please speak up against this immoral separation policy
To all Republican elected officials: As members of the party whose leader occupies the White House, you have influence that members of the opposition party do not. I am urging you to speak out against President Donald Trump’s policy of separating children from parents who are entering the country illegally.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Kids in the juvenile justice system have fallen through budget cracks
In the last minutes of the 2018 legislative session, we got a state budget. Legislators showed commitment and determination in reaching a bi-partisan agreement. The dust hasn’t cleared yet — there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding what got funded and what didn’t. It is all too evident, however, that even dust-settling won’t clear away a fundamental reality. Children have fallen through system cracks due to a failure to plan and budget appropriately to meet the behavioral health needs of children in and at risk for being in the juvenile justice system.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Why including emerging adults in CT’s juvenile justice system makes sense
Gov. Dannel Malloy is again proposing that Connecticut become the first state in United States history to include most emerging adults – those ages 18, 19 and 20 – who have committed crimes into its juvenile court. He has also put forth a second bill that would provide confidentiality protections for low-risk emerging adults in the adult system, offering them a carrot for good behavior by erasing their criminal record if they don’t re-offend for four years. Both applied research and Connecticut’s own experience with raising the age of juvenile court suggest that the Constitution State would be on strong ground to move in the direction the administration has proposed.
Posted inJustice
Malloy pushes one more time to expand juvenile court jurisdiction
“We know that if we can avoid exposing young adults who have committed less serious crimes to the adult criminal justice system, the less likely they are to reoffend or ultimately become incarcerated,” Malloy said.
Posted inEducation, Justice
Expelled students can no longer be sent home with homework and no plan
State law requires local education officials to provide expelled students with an “alternative educational opportunity during the period of expulsion,” but has been silent on what the quality of that education must be. This week, school districts were given standards for the programs they must offer students.