Child advocate urges rehabilitation, not punishment, for young offenders

Report revisits concerns about adult discipline on children and youths

An 18-year-old prisoner at the Janet S. York Correctional Institution last year tied two bed sheets together and attached them to her cell door, according to a report released Tuesday by Connecticut Child Advocate Sarah Eagan.

The young woman was pepper- sprayed and placed in restraints for two hours after charging a correction supervisor who entered her cell and kicking another officer.

A young man who had been placed in a restrictive housing unit at the Manson Youth Institute in Cheshire covered the window of his cell with a sheet and mattress, threatened to hang himself and said he wanted to be home with his family.

When he didn’ t respond to staff directions, he was sprayed with a chemical agent and, after he was decontaminated, placed in restraints inside his cell and observed by staff.

Another young inmate who wouldn’t cooperate when asked to change cells was sprayed in the face, brought to the floor and, after a struggle, was escorted to a cell where he was strip-searched, placed in hand cuffs and leg irons, and a tether chain attached to a black box around his waist.

The child advocate’s report focuses on the Niantic prison for women and the Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire, which houses young men, and revisits Eagan’s ongoing concerns about the application of adult disciplinary actions on children and young adults in the state prison system.

Eagan is urging state policy makers to address what she describes as harsh practices related to isolation and restraining older youth between the ages of 18 and 21 who often come into the system with histories of abuse and neglect, psychiatric disabilities and substance abuse disorders.

Eagan notes that recent reforms in juvenile justice have brought about positive changes but the prison system’s methods are “rooted in traditional corrections practice and not in best practices for serving children and youth with complex mental health, education and child welfare histories.”

“This gap is most striking in OCA’s findings regarding DOC’s continued reliance on cell confinement and isolation as a behavior management tool, inadequate mental health service delivery, and with regard to older youth (male and female), the alarming use of segregation, and even in- cell restraint and chemical agent, including with youth in mental health crisis,” the report says.

Eagan writes that the issues aren’t the fault of individual corrections staff or administrators, but the by-product of limited resources, infrastructure and public policies.

“Policymakers must determine what the public purpose of the correctional system is, whether it exists to control, punish or to rehabilitate youth, and we must address the implications of that stated purpose for future reforms and investments,” the report says. “Given the public safety and civil rights concerns at issue, the time is now to change the way we intervene with and support high need children and youth.”

The report, sent with recommendations to the Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee, indicates that Black youth remain disproportionately incarcerated in the two facilities, making up approximately 60% of all youth aged 15 to 21 at MYI, and 55% of all youth at YCI. The report doesn’t place blame on the DOC, but rather points to a systemic problem.

“OCA continues to be concerned about the disproportionate number of black children transferred to the adult prison system in Connecticut, a finding that speaks to unresolved bias in the juvenile and adult criminal justice system as well as other child- serving systems,” the report says.

It also looked at conditions for the small number of juveniles who were transferred to the adult prisons after being charged with serious crimes.

The report indicates that living conditions for girls at York are better than the conditions for young boys at Manson.

The girls at York, and there were just five of them under 18 in 2019, live in cottages or apartment-like housing with common areas that have books and televisions and access to a phone. They were provided with counseling, education and other programming. All had at least one outside visitor during their average 6.5-month stay.

The approximately 50 boys under 18 at Manson in 2019 lived in cells in two housing units designated for their age group.

Like their male counterparts at Manson, the young girls all came from families that had been involved with the Department of Children and Families due to neglect or abuse issues. Two had parents with extensive criminal histories.

Under a new law enacted last year by the General Assembly, as of Aug. 1, 2020, the DOC is required to report monthly to the Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee each use of chemical spray and prone restraints, where an inmate is taken to the ground and restrained, on any person 17 or younger.

In 2019, 100 minor boys at Manson were confined to their cells, often for 23 hours a day, due to behavioral concerns, and most did not participate in school or other programming, according to the report. The same year, young men 18 to 21 were placed into segregation 300 times, typically for one to two weeks and most often for fighting or failing to follow directions.

During 2019, chemical agent was utilized with 18 minor boys, including boys with psychiatric disabilities and/or asthma, and 33 youth ages 18 to 21 at Manson, according to the report.

At York, only a handful of girls under 18 were confined to their quarters for behavioral issues, in what the child advocate describes as a less isolating based sanction than the boys face and typically is accompanied by extra duties such as cleaning and chores. Young women between 18 and 21 were placed on a segregation unit 39 times during the year, most often for fighting, possessing contraband, not following directives or failing to comply with a strip search.

No minor girls at York were pepper-sprayed, but 12 young women between 18 to 21 were sprayed.

The Office of the Child Advocate spoke with young prisoners during its investigation and included some of their positive comments in the report.

“I really like my clinician,” said one young prisoner receiving treatment for a mental health issue. “She doesn’t just smile at me and tell me everything is OK. She really listens.”

But the child advocate expressed concerns about the increased isolation of young prisoners due to the coronavirus pandemic. She urged state agencies to “work with infectious disease and mental health experts to design and implement infection control protocols that still permit adequate opportunity for developmentally appropriate activities and necessary services, including school and mental health support for children and youth, and that ensure the safety of staff.”

“Policymakers must determine what the public purpose of the correctional system is, whether it exists to control, punish or to rehabilitate youth, and we must address the implications of that stated purpose for future reforms and investments. Given the public safety and civil rights concerns at issue, the time is now to change the way we intervene with and support high need children and youth.”

REPORT BY CONNECTICUT CHILD ADVOCATE SARAH EAGAN