CTJA’s Christina Quaranta testifies before the state’s judiciary committee on bill SB 387, SB 392 and more
Chairs Senator Winfield, Representative Stafstrom, and members of the Judiciary Committee:
My name is Christina Quaranta and I am the Executive Director of the Connecticut Justice Alliance (CTJA). The CTJA is a statewide youth-adult partnership working to end the criminalization of youth. The Alliance includes Justice Staff, Justice Advisors, and Steering Committee members, which includes lawyers, researchers, clinicians, and social workers, who work across issues areas such as mental/behavioral health, family advocacy, substance abuse, youth services, LGBTQ+ issues, legal representation, education, community and residential services, and public policy reform.
I am submitting this testimony:
IN SUPPORT of:
● S.B. No. 387 AN ACT CONCERNING THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE JUVENILE JUSTICE POLICY AND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
● S.B. No. 392 AN ACT CONCERNING STATEMENTS MADE BY JUVENILES
IN STRONG OPPOSITION to:
● S.B. No. 365 AN ACT CONCERNING JUVENILE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORMS
● H.B. No. 5418 AN ACT REVISING JUVENILE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE STATUTES AND INSURANCE STATUTES CONCERNING THEFT OF A MOTOR VEHICLE
● H.B. No. 5417 AN ACT CONCERNING JUVENILE JUSTICE AND SERVICES AND FIREARMS BACKGROUND CHECKS ● S.B. No. 386 AN ACT CONCERNING A STUDY OF THE JUVENILE DELINQUENCY LAWS OF THIS STATE
● S.B. No. 16 AN ACT ADDRESSING GUN VIOLENCE AND JUVENILE CRIME
Connecticut has made many strides in the life or death race to improve the landscape of youth justice. Young people are no longer required to appear before a judge for being absent from school; if you commit a crime at age 16 or 17 years old, you are able to have your case heard in juvenile court; and there have been dollars and resources invested in communities to ensure that those closest to the problem are in charge of determining the solutions. In 2022, two years following massive Black Lives Matter protests and many people around the country pledging to do better by Black and Brown people, there are numerous dangerous bills that have come out of the Judiciary committee that have bipartisan support. This is an emergency. Despite research telling us that locking up young people in adult prison, making it easier to transfer youth under 18 to the adult legal system, and surveilling young people does not improve public safety, this is the goal of these bills, along with other disgraceful things.
The narrative for the past few years, coinciding with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been that Connecticut is experiencing tremendously high rates of crime being committed by youth. This is not supported by data and is a shameful political tactic to win votes on election day and to stoke fear in communities across Connecticut. Along with these mistruths being spoken about young people and their families, the people making these erroneous claims do not offer any solutions that would actually address the root of why young people are committing crimes. Of the proposed bills, few include innovative ideas and funding to truly change young people. This is a glaring reflection of how a certain group of legislators and citizens view Black and Brown youth. That is not okay.
Youth justice policies must be based on data and research about youth development and delinquency to prevent reoffending and to promote improved outcomes for youth, communities and families. There are helpful facts and figures, as well as solutions that work for youth crime, here.
The Connecticut Justice Alliance strongly opposes the bills listed above and adamantly encourages the legislature to propose legislation that helps young people and provides lasting change for communities. The proposed legislation is not fiscally responsible or research-based; it seeks to punish those in ways that are ineffective and inhumane. Justice policies should strive to keep youth in the community, employ evidence-based methods to promote positive youth development and build on the strengths of youth and their families.
Not only should those that proposed and supported this legislation feel ashamed for doing so, they should also be prepared for what suggesting this is the solution will bring. If any of these are passed and then implemented, Connecticut will be fully invested in the torture and dehumanization of young people.
Here is a summary of some of the dangerous changes that are proposed in Senate Bills: 365, 386, 16 and House Bills: 5418, 5417:
● Legislation that would make it easier to send a child, as young as 13 years old, to the adult criminal legal system. This would increase the number of young people in the adult legal system, even as one of the prisons that incarcerates young people as adults, was found to violate the civil rights of children by the United States Department of Justice in December 2021. Research has stated time and time again that sending young people to adult prison is not the answer for young people who commit serious crimes. The evidence overwhelmingly shows that when a young person is sent to the adult criminal legal system, they are much more likely to reoffend and with much more serious crimes than young people who have their cases handled by the juvenile court. The juvenile court is designed to offer rehabilitative, therapeutic and adolescent based care for young people, the adult system is not. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice conducted a review of outcomes associated with transferring youth to adult court, finding that “the practice of transferring juveniles for trial and sentencing in adult criminal court has . . . produced the unintended effect of increasing recidivism, particularly in violent offenders.” A similar Department of Health and Human Services Task Force that same year agreed, finding that that transfer to adult court was a “counterproductive strategy for preventing or reducing violence.” There is numerous research and evidence that sending young people to adult court and prison is harmful. There are numerous states that have decided to back away from this, why would Connecticut decide that they are going to do the opposite? There are 27 states around the country that do not house young people, charged as adults, in adult prison. Those closest to us include: New York, Washington D.C., New Jersey, and Vermont.
● Changes to current law regarding the detention of a young person that would increase the number of young people that are incarcerated in secure detention facilities. Connecticut law already provides that youth can be detained if a judge has “probable cause to believe that the child will pose a risk to public safety.” There is ample evidence that incarcerating youth who do not pose a risk to public safety increases recidivism and the likelihood of future incarceration, increases the likelihood that youth will drop out of school, and increases the likelihood of youth developing mental health problems.
● Change to court appearance laws so that young people and their parents/guardians have to appear in court a business day after they have been accused of committing a crime. One raised bill even goes as far to require that they appear in the court in the city/town where the crime was committed. This is problematic because it leaves no room for diversion of the young person, punishes kids and families if they cannot pivot and change work or school schedules quickly, and also is an issue transportation wise.
● Requiring electronic monitoring/GPS for young people for certain crimes.. The surveillance of young people does not get at the root of why a young person may have committed a crime. This does not provide the necessary resources and is another punitive response to young people behaving as adolescents and making mistakes. Please review this fact sheet for more information about GPS and electronic monitoring.
● Harmful changes to the youthful offender statute that are currently in place. Please see the Center for Children’s Advocacy testimony regarding youthful offender statute changes, this is their area of expertise.
● Calls for review of Connecticut’s youth legal system to assess what is working and what is not. It is always good to reflect on what resources are needed and what is and is not working. However, the Council for State Governments engaged in this work in Connecticut in the past few years. This work was bipartisan and was a comprehensive review of Connecticut’s youth legal system. Many of the recommendations from that review are the complete opposite to many of the proposed rollbacks of Connecticut’s progress for the youth legal system. Aside from a comprehensive review of Connecticut’s youth legal system having been recently completed, the Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee has a diverse membership, promotes transparency by publishing data and outcomes, and engages experts within and outside of Connecticut to ensure that the youth legal system is up to date on best practices, is not causing harm to young people or communities, and is at the forefront of change for Connecticut’s youth who are entangled in the legal system. Government systems should be held accountable to monitor youth outcomes, encourage system improvements, and invest in effective justice system practices. The JJPOC was created to oversee the government systems in place.
The fear-mongering being used to scare Connecticut residents, using misleading, mid-pandemic data in an attempt to lock up children must be resisted at every point. The many positive and impactful steps the state has taken in previous years to deconstruct the criminalization of youth must not be unraveled. Policies that further criminalize youth are racist at the root. Locking up children for a few votes at the polls in November is shameful.
While there are many disgraceful bills proposed this session that will negatively impact young people, families, and communities, all of the legislation proposed has not been harmful. S.B 387, AAC The Recommendations of the Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee takes the necessary steps to further youth justice reform in Connecticut and to address the roots of crime in Connecticut. This bills seeks to add 4 members to the Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee (JJPOC) who are advocates for people that are living in communities with high youth arrest rates. These folx must have been impacted by the youth legal system. It is imperative that those that are making decisions about what Connecticut’s youth legal system, have spent time in it and have experienced it. The bill pushes forward the effort to eliminate racial profiling with the collection and reporting out of data about pedestrian stops. This bill also includes pre arrest diversion. This is very important because once a young person comes in contact with the legal system-youth or adult-they are much more likely to reoffend and other issues. The opportunity for diversion is very important because it teaches a lesson and a new skill, unlink incarceration.
While the JJPOC bill is progressive and important for continued change to Connecticut’s youth legal system, it leaves out some important recommendations that were approved by subcommittees and the entire committee of the JJPOC. These include: raising the minimum age for justice involvement to 12; increasing police training regarding young people; expanding commissary options and reducing price (or making things like hygienic products free) and increasing opportunities and incentives for education, employment and programming.
More data collection being completed by the judicial branch, division of criminal justice and the state police is not a bad thing. Things that are not studied and assessed, cannot be improved or changed. More training with police officers and prosecutors in regards to how to get an order for detention is not negative. Having a judge submit in writing the reasons why they do not agree to detain a child, will be valuable pieces of information. Taking a look into the transfer of youth legal services from the Department of Children and Families to the Judicial Branch would also be valuable.
In conclusion, Connecticut should not further criminalize, punish, and harm young people. If they pass legislation to do so, Connecticut will travel back in time to hold the reputation of a state that shackles and weighs down young people with the issues that come with being tried as an adult. Read the words of Vincent Schiraldi (former commissioner of New York City’s Departments of Correction and Probation and former director of Washington, D.C.’s youth corrections agency) and Gladys Carrion (former commissioner of New York State’s Office of Children and Family Services and New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services),below. If these dangerous laws are passed and adopted this legislative session, Connecticut will be on the opposite side of justice and will have fully invested itself in the torture and dehumanization of young people.
During the 1990s, a time of high rates of violent crime, officials on both sides of the political aisle were vilifying “superpredators,” a catchphrase for young people who they believed were so irredeemable that treating them as minors didn’t make sense. Nearly every state made it easier to try juveniles as adults, which ended up roughly doubling the number of young people in adult facilities, according to research conducted by the Justice Department. These policies were catastrophic in their impact.
Read the words of Jason Szanyi , Deputy Director of Center for Children’s Law and Policy, Connecticut should be mentioned in this paragraph, one with roots in reform and justice, not rolling back the reforms that are working with a knee jerk reaction.
This past Friday, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, a Republican, signed into law a major juvenile justice reform package that would expand diversion, reduce the use of incarceration, and create a new statewide grant program to fund community-based services. The bill’s sponsor, Representative Wendy McNamara – also a Republican – summarized the intent of the legislation, noting that "[a]ll youth deserve the greatest chance to succeed and these policy changes will be a huge step forward in keeping our communities safe and reducing juvenile recidivism rates." This week, Maryland’s Senate is poised to take up a similar omnibus youth justice reform package, which has already passed the House of Delegates. Indiana’s juvenile justice package was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. It was largely grounded in recommendations made by the Council for State Governments (CSG), which completed a comprehensive review of Indiana’s juvenile justice system. Maryland’s reform package stemmed from the work of the Vera Institute of Justice and the state’s Juvenile Justice Reform Council. Both the CSG and the Vera Institute engaged in a comprehensive assessment of each state’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities using data, research, and stakeholder input.
The Connecticut Justice Alliance calls on Connecticut’s decision-makers to do the right thing and get our children the help they need, not play politics with their futures by reinvesting in policy that has already been proven to fail. We must do all we can as a state to end the criminalization of youth. Incarceration doesn’t work, it just inflicts more harm. In order to make communities safe for all citizens, legislators must draft bills that address the root of the issues.
Please contact me, Christina Quaranta, at 203-814-8452 or Christina@ctja.org with any questions.
