Yesterday, with overwhelming bi-partisan support, the Legislature passed two pieces of legislation that represent significant advances for Connecticut’s juvenile justice community.
Raised Bill 7050, An Act Concerning the Juvenile Justice System, enhances important protections for Connecticut’s youth in the juvenile justice system including: creating a statutory presumption that a child will have all shackles and mechanical restraints removed before entering a juvenile courtroom, removing certain Class B felonies from automatic transfer to adult court, raising the minimum age for transfer from 14 to 15 and extending the JJPOC, a legislative task force to consult on juvenile justice policy issues.
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy lauded the shackling component of this bill:
“To this day, many states, including Connecticut, still allow the indiscriminate shackling of young people in juvenile courtrooms. However, there is a growing national consensus that shackling is an indefensible practice. Although our judicial system works on the presumption of innocence, sending a child into a courtroom in chains sends a clear message not just to court officials but to the kid in question: we view you as a threat and a hardened criminal, even before you’ve been found guilty. And for better or worse, kids often live up to the expectations we have for them. That is why I recently expressed my support for [Bill 7050], a bill that would prevent juvenile offenders from being shackled in Connecticut courtrooms.”
The passage of this bill ends this unfortunate practice, further protecting the rights of children in Connecticut’s juvenile justice system.
Find the bill and its history here: http://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabillstatus/cgabillstatus.asp?selBillType=Bill&bill_num=HB-7050
Raised bill 6834, An Act Concerning Collaboration Between Boards Of Education And School Resource Officers And The Collection And Reporting Of Data On School-Based Arrests serves to reduce school-based arrests by creating a statutory definition for school-based arrests, and providing for better, more transparent data collection on such arrests while also requiring schools and police to enter into Memoranda of Agreement delineating and limiting the role of police in schools.
Find the bill and its history here: http://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabillstatus/cgabillstatus.asp?selBillType=Bill&bill_num=HB-6834
Marisa Mascolo Halm, J.D.
Director, TeamChild Juvenile Justice Project
Center for Children's Advocacy
65 Elizabeth Street
Hartford, CT 06105
P: 860-570-5327 ext. 228
C: 860-566-0764 F: 860-570-5256
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