By Lisa Backus
The Register Citizen, Torrington, Conn.
CHESHIRE, Conn. — Despite gains in dealing with incarcerated youths following a federal Department of Justice investigation, the state Department of Correction still is relying too heavily on isolation to deal with behavioral issues and isn’t providing enough mental health programming, according to a report released Thursday.
The 58-page report issued by the state’s Office of the Child Advocate calls for Connecticut to develop a plan to remove youths from adult prison settings and provide appropriate rehabilitative services including more educational opportunities and more mental health programming geared toward dealing with trauma in children.
“When youth are released from MYI (Manson Youth Institution), they should be prepared to return home and reengage in their communities,” said Acting Child Advocate Christina D. Ghio. “Given their extensive needs, the focus of secure confinement should be on treatment and rehabilitation.”
At any given time, there are between 40 and 50 male inmates ages 15 to 17 held at MYI located in Cheshire near the adult Cheshire Correctional Institution, the OCA said in the report, which reviewed their conditions of confinement from 2022 to 2024.
The OCA also looked at conditions at York Correctional Institution, the state’s only prison for adult females where incarcerated female teens are housed. There are fewer than a handful of female teens in the state’s adult prison system, the report said.
Ghio and her predecessor Sarah Eagan , who left the job at the end of September, stressed in the report that a higher percentage of Black and Hispanic youths continue to be confined in adult prisons, with more than two-thirds of incarcerated youths at Manson awaiting trial, 80 percent of them children of color, the report said.
Previous analysis commissioned by the state found that among minor youths referred to court for a Class B felony, Black youths were more likely to have their case transferred to and stay in adult criminal court than white youths, the report said.
“OCA continues to find that the state disproportionately confines Black and Hispanic youth in adult prisons, a foundational civil rights concern for the state’s justice system,” Ghio said in an executive summary with the report.
While acknowledging that the DOC has provided more mental health programming for teens since a previous 2019 OCA report that prompted the DOJ investigation, most youths do not receive weekly individual therapy, but most do participate in one hour per week of group sessions, the OCA concluded. But there were no group mental health sessions on weekends.
In the video below, Gordon Graham discusses the isolation of juvenile offenders and the importance of having a solid policy to guide correctional efforts.
DOC officials said in a response to the report that they are providing a reasonable level of mental health programming for the teens based on assessments when the youths enter the system.
“DOC disagrees that we are underestimating the needs of the juvenile population and it is not clear from the OCA report how they came to that conclusion,” a response to the report said. “We provide mental health services to the entire juvenile population regardless of mental health need score. These interactions may not always be documented within the health record, however, the interactions and conversations are occurring.”
The OCA also pointed out in the report that the rate of family visitation in-person and virtually is “persistently low,” which can be addressed by the DOC placing greater emphasis on finding solid mentors or family connections for youths when they enter the prison system.
“For youth, connection with relatives and supportive adults is critically important,” the report said. “These connections not only serve to support mental well-being during incarceration but also support re-entry. OCA could not conduct an analysis of all of the reasons youth or late adolescents may not receive visits, but factors include strained relationships, transportation barriers, youth’s preference not to be seen in prison, and youth’s concern for siblings and other caregiver responsibilities.”
MYI also continues to rely heavily on cell confinement, isolation and restriction to deal with problem behavior and conflicts among youths, the report said.
OCA found that systematic use of disciplinary confinement had changed from the 2019 report with youths confined for fewer consecutive days and they now are permitted to participate in school either in person or remotely while on disciplinary confinement.
The agency replaced the isolation tactic previously called “confinement to quarters” with the Reflection Accountability Medication Program, known as RAMP, the DOC explained in its response to the report.
“RAMP uses restorative discipline interventions to assist juveniles in regaining behavioral control,” the DOC said in the response. “Youth participating in RAMP will continue to have access to education, programs and visitation as long as they can be safely accommodated”
But the report indicated that records continue to show that teens who are in disciplinary confinement are not participating in rehabilitative programming, are eating in their cells and are not permitted to have their belongings while in RAMP cells.
“Cell confinement is typically three days duration, with children stepping down to their own cells, still with restrictions in place that may last for weeks,” the OCA said in the report. “One boy stated that after stepping down to their own cells they were ‘basically [experiencing] the same thing but in a different cell’ due to the level of restriction.”
The majority of teens confined at MYI in 2022 and 2023 experienced disciplinary confinement and subsequent restrictions, with a number of youths experiencing multiple disciplinary confinements, according to the OCA. In 2022, there were 205 RAMP placements and 133 in 2023, according to the report. In some cases, the RAMP placements involved repeated incidents involving the same child, the report said.
Data for 2024 showed a significant increase in the use of RAMP, with 192 incidents between January 1 and September 30, 2024, the report said.
The findings also concluded that teens are missing educational opportunities because there is a lack of substitute teachers and a lack of special education classes within USD1, the district that provides an education to incarcerated youths.
“While educational staff are clearly committed to working with the students at MYI, OCA continues to find deficiencies in the provision of minimally adequate educational programming, including special education and related services,” the report said.
The OCA noted in a summary that youths who are incarcerated in adult facilities “often have experienced abuse or neglect or other traumatic events and have extensive clinical, educational, and developmental needs.”
“These boys and girls need the same support, guidance, and nurturing as any other youth” said Heather Panciera, assistant child advocate. “They need to be in school and feel accomplished, go outside and get fresh air, and learn how to get along with each other. This requires consistent positive interactions with adults, modeling, and teaching. It’s a process. Most importantly, they need to have an adult in the community who they can rely upon to support them while incarcerated and guide them when they return to their community.”
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