The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Children’s advocates, lawmakers offer solutions to car thefts
HARTFORD — The debate over youth crime and stolen cars reached the front steps of the state Capitol on Friday morning, when children’s advocates and lawmakers offered social-service alternatives to what has become a national phenomenon during the coronavirus pandemic.
While Republicans in the General Assembly have been calling for a special session to possibly tighten penalties for young car thieves, Democrats and youth advocates note that car thefts have declined sharply in recent years, until the pandemic — but acknowledge a pressing need for better outreach programs.
State Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, the powerful co-chairwoman of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, charged that while the state budget that took effect July 1 includes funding for youth programs, including summer employment, the money has not yet been released.
During a late morning news conference on the steps of the Capitol, Walker joined other lawmakers and children’s advocates, including the Connecticut Juvenile Alliance and the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, in calling for the expansion of prevention and diversionary services to help children before crimes are committed.
Walker said a “false narrative” has emerged on the issue of youth crime that portrays prosecutors and police as without tools to detain children with records of multiple crimes. In fact, she said a 2011 law, unanimously approved in the House and Senate, aimed at addressing urban delinquency has worked effectively, most notably a recent case in West Hartford in which a car with a toddler in it was alledgely stolen by a 16-yearold.
She said the entire United States and countries across the world have noticed spikes in crime over the last year and a half that coincided with the coronavirus.
“The pandemic had laid bare the magnitude of need in all of
our communities, all ages,” Walker said. “And I don’t mean adults. I mean children. Emergency placement, our hospitals, our health centers are bubbling at the seams with children, children with mental health issues.”
Acknowledging that crimes have been committed and offenders must be held accountable, Walker warned that Black and Hispanic kids are essentially “forgotten” and the root causes are lost. “We must shine a light on the issues but not mar the light with untruths, lies and innuendos,” she said.
State Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, co-chairman of the legislative Judiciary Committee, agreed with Walker that the nature of the statewide conversation was based on “inaccurate” claims that car thefts are soaring.
“The public has come to believe that if you are a juvenile, 16-, 17-, 18-years-old and you go out, and we’ve moved from cars theft to anything,” Winfield said. “You commit any crime. You shoot someone, there is no accountability. That is absolutely incorrect.”
In reaction to the news conference, House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said a variety of reforms are needed to prevent crimes from occurring and make sure the most dangerous youths are prevented from continuing to run amok.
“The fact that there are children who have been arrested 40 times and have still not been adjudicated needs to be addressed,” Candelora said in a phone interview. He warned that making the argument a matter of race does not help create an atmosphere for a bipartisan attempt to address the problem.
“If our cities fail, our suburbs fail, too,” Candelora said, warning that people throughout the state are feeling threatened. “A lot of these juveniles are becoming victims of organized crime and this could continue into adulthood and we will see a rise in the incarceration rate.”
He said that under the terms of a working group of lawmakers, including Winfield and Walker, there was an agreement to hold off on new legislation until further agreements on possible solutions are reached. “Two people taking the opportunity to spin their own narrative indicates they might not want to work with us,” Candelora said.
During the legislative session, which ended in early June, Democrats rejected bills proposed by Republican lawmakers that would have enhanced penalties for young car thieves.
But the hit-and-run death of a jogger in New Britain by an alleged car thief, and the West Hartford case, prompted meetings of Republican and Democratic leaders who have been discussing a possible special session this summer of fall.
Michael P. Lawlor, a former state lawmaker and justice policy adviser under former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, said state prosecutors have had the tools to detain, and even treat the most dangerous youths as adults in the courts. But many police officers and prosecutors seemed not to push the issues by going to judges for detention orders, and instead return children who have been arrested to their parents’ custody.
“Judges always have the ability to decide who gets locked up and who doesn’t, as well as how long a kid stays locked up,” he said, citing a change in attitudes this summer.
“It’s clear that in recent weeks police and prosecutors have discovered how to work with the existing law to deal with juveniles they have reason to believe pose a danger to public safety,” said Lawlor, associate professor of criminal justice in the Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences at the University of New Haven.
“That’s good news. Just as important, we have an obligation to make sure there are adequate options and resources in the juvenile justice system and in the community to address the risks and needs of atrisk adolescents on the front end.”
The rate of auto thefts in Connecticut remains among the lowest in the nation, Lawlor said in an interview earlier this week. “So far in 2021 there have been fewer juveniles arrested for auto theft compared to the same period last year, as well as 2019,” when the state’s number of stolen-car cases was the lowest in half a century.
“We should also remember that two-thirds of those who steal cars are adults and one third are juveniles.”
Lawlor said police around the country acknowledge that a big problem with the issue of stolen cars is that owners leave their vehicles unlocked with the keys in them. “This is not blaming the victim,” he said. “This is just good advice.”
Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, said Friday that he agrees that a broad discussion on crime should occur.
“There are victims that have been ignored for far too long that live in our cities, areas controlled by Democrats for decades,” Kelly said in a statement. “It’s wrong that only now that violence has moved beyond our cities are Democrats in charge confronted with their failures. Locking your car is good advice, but it won't stop the violence and it won't give kids opportunity. To suggest police are not using tools available to them is not accurate, and shows why we need broad conversations with all stakeholders together.
State Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, the top Republican on the law-writing Judiciary Committee and one of the leaders negotiating with Democrats, said in a statement after the news conference that the COVID pandemic lockdowns are not to blame.
“The fact is, no one has a right to enter someone else’s property without permission, and they certainly don’t have the right to ransack their vehicle or steal their car,” Fishbein said.