State lawmakers pledge to tackle juvenile crime
Conn. has seen increase in car thefts since start of pandemic
HARTFORD — A bipartisan group of lawmakers emerged from an afternoon meeting on juvenile crime at the state Capitol Wednesday with a conciliatory tone, and announced there’s agreement on how to address repeat offenders who commit serious offenses, including providing judges with more information about prior arrests.
The closed-door meeting came about a week after the hit-and-run death of a 53-year-old man in New Britain by an alleged 17year-old driver of a stolen car, who police said had been arrested 13 times in less than four years, including on charges of assault with a knife and robbery.
Both Democrats and Republicans at Wednesday’s meeting characterized the discussion as a starting point for what they hope will be a collaborative solution to the issue.
“This meeting was not intended to redraft all the criminal justice reforms that we’ve had over the years,” House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford said after the closed-door meeting in his office.
One area of agreement is quickly giving judges more access to the criminal history of a juvenile offender.
Take the example of a juvenile arrested late one evening. Under current law, police can hold the juvenile for up to six hours and must request a detention order from a judge to hold that person longer.
If the arrest occurs late
at night, police call the judge on duty who might not have full access to the juvenile’s criminal record from home.
“If the ask is to eliminate the limit altogether and police can hold the juvenile for as long as they want, no I don’t think that’s something our caucus would support,” state Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, co-chairman of the legislative Judiciary Committee, said after Wednesday’s meeting.
“But giving more flexibility to a judge to allow a six-hour time period to be extended longer while an investigation is ongoing or while paperwork is being gathered or while the judge is engaged in looking up somebody’s past criminal record, that might be an area of middle ground,” Stafstrom said.
A law passed during the 2021 legislative session requires the Judicial Branch to track how often police request detention orders and whether they are being granted or denied — a proposal from Republicans that made its way into a court-operations bill.
“My understanding is that some police officers believe that it’s a waste of time. I want to see the data. Can that be substantiated?” said Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, the top Republican on the judiciary committee.
Earlier Wednesday, Republicans, joined by the police chiefs of New Britain and Wolcott, repeated their call for a special legislative session to address a spike in car thefts and other crimes by juveniles.
“Hopefully we’ll see some meaningful reforms that everyone will be better off with,” Republican House Leader Vincent Candelora, of Branford, said after Wednesday’s meeting.
Republicans want juvenile offenders to be detained longer, repeat serious offenders to face harsher punishments, and to change police department policies regarding pursuing stolen vehicles.
New Britain Police Chief Christopher Chute said a “very small, narrow population of repeat offenders” is “generating the majority of these crimes.”
“They’re so bold that they’re broadcasting on social media how they’re driving around in stolen cars, how they’re possessing illegal firearms . ... They’re making no effort to hide their behavior. When we arrest them, they laugh at us because they know exactly what’s going to happen — nothing,” he said.
Connecticut, like many states across the country, has seen an increase in car thefts since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The National Insurance Crime Bureau says several factors could be behind the nationwide increase in 2020 “such as the pandemic, economic downturn, loss of juvenile outreach programs, and public safety budgetary and resource limitations are likely contributing factors.”
Vehicle thefts in Connecticut had been trending downward for decades. Between 2010 and 2019, the state saw a 21 percent decrease in the rate of motor vehicle thefts, according to a report from the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy at Central Connecticut State University.
In 2019, there was a 17 percent decline in the rate of car thefts, which the report’s authors say is an outlier and requires further study to explain. The report also found that there was “no evidence” that laws passed in recent years to raise the age of a juvenile in Connecticut from 15 to 17 caused the increase in car thefts.
Asked at a news conference in Guilford earlier this week about the “raise the age” laws, which were enacted before he was in office, Gov. Ned Lamont said, “I’m not as worried about that. I am worried about kids under the age of 18 who are breaking the law, sometimes more than once, and finding the right response. Do I think it’s incarceration? No, for that young kid, but I think there ought to be consequences for your actions.”
Lamont said his administration, including his general counsel, is working closely with legislative leadership and police chiefs “to see what we can do to discourage this type of behavior.”
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” the governor said. “We’ve got to be able to respond immediately and give people the right deterrence.”
The two police chiefs at Wednesday’s news conference said the repeat juvenile offenders arrested by their departments have shown they don’t think they’ll face any consequences for their actions. They dismissed the claim that the spike in car thefts is related to the pandemic.
“We’re not saying that every juvenile offender should be incarcerated . ... Many juveniles do things they regret, and with proper supervision and guidance, they don’t commit any more crimes and become productive citizens,” said Wolcott Police Chief Ed Stephens.
“We’re here to say that changes must be made to the way repeat juvenile offenders are held accountable for their actions,” Stephens said. “The system we now have doesn’t work for all juvenile offenders.”