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| Agency overview | |
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| Jurisdiction | Government of Connecticut |
| Headquarters | 505 Hudson Street Hartford, CT 06106 |
| Agency executive |
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| Website | portal |
The Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) is a state agency of Connecticut providing family services. Its headquarters is in Hartford. [1]
The Connecticut Department of Children and Youth Services was established around 1970. The Long Lane School became a part of the new department in 1970. [2]
In 1989, a group of plaintiffs instituted an action against the Connecticut Department of Children and Youth Services [3] which resulted in a requirement for federal court supervision of DCF, which has continued for more than 20 years to date.[ citation needed ] The Connecticut DCF, as recently as 2012, was under this supervision due to its inability to correct the problems identified.[ citation needed ]
The department received its current name in 1993. [2]
In July 2003 employees of the Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS) filed a complaint with federal authorities, stating that the DCF did not do enough to protect inmates from sexual assault and violence and that the DCF gave girls at contracted facilities fewer opportunities than the boys at CJTS. The Boston Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education began an investigation. [4]
The Bureau of Juvenile Services operated the state's correctional facilities for children; it received its current name in 2003. [5]
The Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS) was the state's secure facility for delinquent boys. [5] The CJTS is located in Middletown. The $57 million juvenile correctional center opened in August 2001. [6] The Walter G. Cady School of the Unified School District #2 (USD #2) served residents of the CJTS. [7] CJTS closed in 2018. [8]
The state of Connecticut used to operate the Long Lane School in Middletown, a juvenile correctional facility for boys and girls of the ages 11–16. [9] As of 2002 about 35 girls resided there. [10] The facility had three cottages for boys and one for girls. [11]
In 2002 the Government of Connecticut announced that the Long Lane School, then the state's designated juvenile center for girls, was closing. Girls were moved to the Connecticut Children's Place in East Windsor. The closure occurred after the Attorney General of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, and a state child advocate, Jeanne Milstein, investigated a suicide attempt at Long Lane and then asked DCF to review its practices regarding the safety of delinquent girls. [6] Long Lane was scheduled to close on December 30, 2003. [10]
By 2002 several adjudicated girls had run away from Children's Place, which was designed as an open community. [12] [13]
By 2009 the state was using York Correctional Institution, an adult women's prison, to house some delinquent girls ages 15–18, [14] who had committed crimes as juveniles. As of February 2014, two girls were assigned to York, 21 girls were in pre-trial facilities, and no girls were out of state. One girl was waiting to get into Journey House, a secure facility for girls; [15] Journey House is a privately operated facility on the property of Natchaug Hospital in Mansfield Center. [16] [17]
By 2013 the state planned to establish a hardware secure facility for 10-12 girls at the Albert J. Solnit Center, a facility at the former Riverview Hospital. [18] Pueblo Unit, a state-owned, newly opened facility next to the CTJS in Middletown, was established so the state would not have to send juveniles to York. [19] The state spent $500,000 to renovate Pueblo Unit into a girls' facility, and this was completed in March. [20] It is intended to house two girls placed on an emergency basis and ten girls for longer commitments, up to six months. [19] Pueblo Unit has classrooms, common areas, three double rooms, and six single rooms. [21]
As of 2014 DCF assigns girls to two locked facilities: Pueblo Unit and the Journey House. [19]
The Albert J. Solnit Children's Center- North Campus; formerly the Connecticut Children's Place (CCP), [22] and the State Receiving Home; is located in Warehouse Point, [10] in East Windsor. Effective December 1, 2013 it became a psychiatric treatment facility for juvenile males. [22] It had been a state residential and educational center for abused and neglected children of the ages 10–18. [23] It has three cottages, with each having 14 beds. [10] After the closure of the Long Lane School, CCP became the housing point of delinquent girls adjudicated by the state. [6] Delinquent girls were to be moved to a vacant cottage that was "staff secure," meaning patrolled by employees but not hardware secure. [10] This unit was to have 12 beds. [24] In 2003 some area selectmen met with DCF and discussed concerns about the facility. [25]
Albert J. Solnit Psychiatric Center - South Campus is in Middletown. [26] The primary secure girls' correctional facility, intended for short-term use, is located on this property. [27]
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 census. Hartford is the most populous city in the Capitol Planning Region and the core city of the Greater Hartford metropolitan area.
Farmington is a town in Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population was 26,712 at the 2020 census. It sits 10 miles west of Hartford at the hub of major I-84 interchanges, 20 miles south of Bradley International Airport and two hours by car from New York City and Boston. It has been home to the world headquarters of several large corporations including Otis Elevator Company, United Technologies, and Carvel. The northwestern section of Farmington is a suburban neighborhood called Unionville.
Newington is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. Located 8 miles (13 km) south of downtown Hartford, Newington is an older, mainly residential suburb located in Greater Hartford. As of 2023, the population is 30,527. The Connecticut Department of Transportation has its headquarters in Newington.
Middletown is a city in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, it is 16 miles south of Hartford. Middletown is the largest city in the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. In 1650, it was incorporated by English settlers as a town under its original Native American name, Mattabeseck, after the local Wangunk village of the same name. They were among many tribes along the Atlantic coast who spoke Algonquian languages. The colonists renamed the settlement in 1653.
Greater Hartford is a region located in the U.S. state of Connecticut, centered on the state's capital of Hartford. It represents the only combined statistical area in Connecticut defined by a city within the state, being bordered by the Greater Boston region to the northeast and New York metropolitan area to the south and west. Sitting at the southern end of the Metacomet Ridge, its geology is characterized by land of a level grade along the shores of Connecticut River Valley, with loamy, finer-grained soil than other regions in the state. Greater Hartford, had a total population of 1,213,531 at the 2020 United States census.
The Connecticut State Police (CSP) is the state police and highway patrol of the U.S. state of Connecticut, responsible for statewide traffic regulation and law enforcement, especially in areas not served by municipal police. It is a division of the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. The CSP currently has about 875 troopers as of June 28, 2022 and is headquartered in Middletown, Connecticut. The Connecticut State Police is also responsible for protecting the Governor of Connecticut, Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, and their families.
In criminal justice systems, a youth detention center, known as a juvenile detention center (JDC), juvenile detention, juvenile jail, juvenile hall, or more colloquially as juvie/juvy or the Juvey Joint, also sometimes referred to as observation home or remand home is a prison for people under the age of majority, to which they have been sentenced and committed for a period of time, or detained on a short-term basis while awaiting trial or placement in a long-term care program. Juveniles go through a separate court system, the juvenile court, which sentences or commits juveniles to a certain program or facility.
Susan Bysiewicz is an American politician and attorney who has served as the 109th lieutenant governor of Connecticut since 2019. She previously served as the 72nd secretary of the state of Connecticut from 1999 to 2011 and a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1993 to 1999.
CT Transit is a public transportation bus system serving many metropolitan areas and their surrounding suburbs in the state of Connecticut. CT Transit is a division of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, although it contracts a number of private companies for most of its operations. CT Transit began operations in 1976 as Connecticut Transit after the Connecticut DOT's acquisition of the Connecticut Company. Initially serving only the Hartford, New Haven, and Stamford areas, CT Transit's service now extends throughout much of Connecticut. CT Transit provides local "city bus" service in Bristol, Hartford, Meriden, New Britain, New Haven, Stamford, Wallingford and Waterbury in addition to a number of express routes connecting to outlying suburbs and other regions of the state.
The greater Hartford–Springfield area is an urban region and surrounding suburban areas that encompasses both north-central Connecticut and the southern Connecticut River Valley in western Massachusetts; its major city centers are Springfield, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut.
Joette Katz is an American attorney who is a partner at the law firm, Shipman & Goodwin LLP. She was an associate justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, where she also served as the administrative judge for the state appellate system, and later was the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. In various roles during her career she has had an impact on issues of state and national importance, such as: criminal law, capital punishment, civil rights and the right to education, eminent domain, same-sex marriage, LGBTQ rights, sexual assault, sex trafficking, and helping children in state care move from institutions to families.
Matthew L. Lesser is an American politician who represents the 9th district in the Connecticut State Senate. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the State House in 2008, and re-elected in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. He won election to the state Senate from the 9th district in 2018, and was reelected in 2020 and 2022. Lesser unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for Connecticut Secretary of the State in 2022.
The Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) is a state agency of Rhode Island, headquartered in Downtown Providence. The agency provides services for children and families.
The Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS) is a state agency of Massachusetts. Its administrative office is headquartered in 600 Washington Street, Boston. The agency operates the state's juvenile justice services and facilities for incarcerated children.
The Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCF) is a government agency of the U.S. state of Vermont, headquartered in the Waterbury Office Complex in Waterbury.
Len Fasano is a Republican member of the Connecticut Senate, representing the 34th District since 2003. Fasano was sworn in as Senate Republican President Pro Tempore in January 2017. Under the new leadership role Senator Fasano will lead a Republican caucus with considerably more control over the Senate's agenda than in previous years as a result of a power sharing agreement negotiated after Republicans gained three seats in the Connecticut Senate, creating a tie for the first time since 1893. Previously, he had served as the Senate Minority Leader since 2015.
Robert Vincent Stefanowski is an American businessman and politician.
The Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS) was a juvenile prison in Middletown, Connecticut, that operated under the Connecticut Department of Children and Families from 2001 to 2018. Established in proximity to the Connecticut Valley Hospital (CVH), CJTS held male inmates age 12–17 with capacity for 240 inmates. In 2021, Connecticut governor Ned Lamont announced that he was considering reopening the prison to hold immigrant children.
Long Lane School was a prison for juvenile inmates in Middletown, Connecticut. Historically a prison for delinquent girls, it underwent various name changes, was acquired by the state in 1924, and began housing boys in 1972. Prior to its 2003 closure, it was operated by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, and was for inmates of the ages 11–16. It was a locked and high-security facility. In its lifetime, Long Lane remained unfenced.
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