By JOSH KOVNER, The Hartford Courant

September 13, 2014

Staff members at a locked treatment unit for teenage girls in Middletown used excessive force in a series of physical restraints, the state child advocate says, prompting her office to take the unusual step of reporting four of the cases as suspected child abuse.

Child Advocate Sarah Eagan called for an independent investigation into the Pueblo treatment unit. Eagan and her investigators are mandated reporters of child abuse, like doctors and teachers and police. Pueblo is operated by the Department of Children and Families.

The four complaints were phoned into DCF's abuse hotline after the advocate's office viewed dozens of hours of videotapes of restraints at Pueblo. The investigators noted instances of prone restraints being applied against girls who were disobeying directions but not being physically threatening at that moment. Prone restraints occur when one or more staff members take a youth to the floor, face down, and hold the youth there, however briefly.