University of New Haven
Dr. Danielle Cooper.
Decreasing youth crime and squeezed state budgets have precipitated a transitional period for how Connecticut handles juvenile delinquents.
Even though the state is moving to reduce its incarcerated youth population, legislators, academics and criminal justice reform advocates still need to be vocal about investing state resources in diversionary measures that keep people under the age of 18 out of the criminal justice system in the first place.
So said Dr. Danielle Cooper, assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven and interim director of research at the Tow Youth Justice Institute, during an interview on the latest episode of WNHH’s “Criminal Justice Insider with Babz Rawls-Ivy and Jeff Grant.”
Cooper said that a steady, two-decade long decrease in crime rates among young adults in Connecticut combined with the state’s looming fiscal crisis has resulted in two significant, imminent changes in terms of how the state processes and oversees juvenile delinquents.
First, the state plans on closing the Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS), Connecticut’s lone maximum-security “youth prison,” by July 1, 2018.
The Middletown-based facility houses juvenile delinquents under the age of 18 who have been convicted of crimes but are not deemed serious enough threats to society to warrant judgment by and incarceration in the adult juvenile justice system.
From November 2013 to November 2017, the incarcerated youth population at CJTS dropped from 145 to 50. The facility currently holds 25 youth inmates, 16 of whom are scheduled to be discharged to their homes in the next six months.
According to the latest meeting of the state legislature’s Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee (JJPOC), the state plans to have only three youth in its custody at CJTS by June 2018.
Harry Droz photo
Cooper with WNHH hosts Jeff Grant and Babz Rawls-Ivy.
Cooper, who oversees the staff that supports the JJPOC, said that the state’s plan is to transition many of these juvenile delinquents from the large, maximum-security location to smaller, more residential secure facilities located throughout the state where inmates can meet more regularly with their families, prepare their own meals together, and have readier access to rehabilitative social services to help them prepare for successful reintegration after they are discharged.
Cooper also said that, as of July 1, all juvenile delinquents will be overseen by the state Judicial Branch, and no longer by the Department of Children and Families (DCF). She said that the majority of youth involved in the state criminal justice system are already under the supervision of the Judicial Branch, which already oversees around 9,800 youths who have been diverted from incarceration and are currently in some kind of probationary services.
She said that the two dozen youths currently in the state’s DCF-managed maximum security facility and the 90 youths in the state’s secure residential programs represent just a small fraction of youths engaged with the criminal justice system in some way in the state of Connecticut.
She said that their transition from DCF to the Judicial Branch would reduce the likelihood of duplication of state services, and would place these youths under a branch of state government that has been praised for setting a national model for how to oversee juvenile delinquents in a humane, responsible and effective way.
The closing of CTJS will also result in cost savings at a time of continuing budgetary crisis, even though the cost of running the facility has decreased significantly as its incarcerated population has dropped. According to the Connecticut Mirror, CTJS cost the state over $30 million each year to operate four years ago. Today, the facility costs around $14.5 million per year.
Cooper also praised the state legislature for passing a law in 2007, which came into full effect between 2010 and 2012, that allowed 16 and 17-year-old offenders to be treated as juveniles, as opposed to requiring that they be tried as adults. The state of New York, for example, requires that 16 and 17-year-old offenders be tried as adults.
“There was a concern [when this law was passed] that it was going to be perceived as leniency,” Cooper said. “Is this going to result in more crime and less public safety? We haven’t seen those things.”
But even with these changes in the direction of reducing the state’s incarcerated youth population, Cooper said that criminal justice reform advocates and academics, like her, need to continue calling for more investment in initiatives that address the root causes of why youth end up committing crimes in the first place.
“When I think about crime, especially for youth,” she said, “I think about: How do we motivate the appropriate behavior?”
She said that there are several competing theories as to how best to divert youths from the criminal justice system.
She said that psychologists will look at individual behavior, and why any given individual will react to a certain set of circumstances in a particular way. She said that economist will take on a macro-level lens, and look at the efficacy of offering food stamps and unemployment benefits for three months, six months, 12 months, etc…
“My most global answer sounds really cliché,” she said, “but I’m really into the idea of education, and particularly education about history.”
“If you’re in this loop and you only think that it’s happened now,” she continued, “and you don’t realize that you might have already come from a people who have endured struggle, that you’ve already seen people have less and do more, that makes you reframe your perspective.”
She said that a good school is where youth can find faith in learning and a means to express themselves. She also said that a supportive home is critical to fostering a love of school and learning.
“Should we stop asking for things because there may or may not be funding,” Cooper said, referring to the looming budget deficits and state cuts to funding of not-for-profits. “No. From an informed perspective, we [i.e. academics and criminal justice reform advocates] know that we have to continue to ask for change. We won’t let you forget that there’s a need for change.”
Previous “Criminal Justice Insider” articles:
- Parole Holds A Key To Reentry Puzzle
- Organizer Takes “Sawdust-On-Floor” Tack
- Female Ex-Offenders Band Together
- German-Inspired Reform Calms Prison
- Son’s Arrest Helped Shape Porter’s Politics
“Criminal Justice Insider” airs every first and third Friday of the month on WNHH FM at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Listen to the full interview with Cynthia Farrar by clicking on the audio player or Facebook Live video below.
“Criminal Justice Insider” is sponsored by Family ReEntry and The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.