Safety Audit of Connecticut's Locked Juvenile Facilities Finds Multiple Risks
By Lucy Nalpathanchil • Mar 24, 2016

http://wnpr.org/post/safety-audit-connecticuts-locked-juvenile-facilities-finds-multiple-risks

The Department of Children and Families ordered a suicide prevention audit after the Child Advocate issued a critical report last summer over conditions at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School for boys and the Pueblo unit for girls in Middletown.

Experts agree confined youth are already at a higher risk of suicidal behavior. Last summer, the Child Advocate found that over a 12-month period there were more than 50 documented incidents of youth suicidal behavior, including kids who wrapped clothing around their necks or found objects to cut themselves.

So in July, DCF said it would hire an expert to not only assess the physical buildings, but review how staff responded. Correctional Managed Health Care at UConn Health Center did the audit after visiting each facility three separate times starting in November and finishing last month.

At the Pueblo unit for girls, the auditor said the basement, which is the first floor of the facility, "has risks too numerous to mention that could be used for self-injurious or suicidal behavior if there was a momentary lapse of supervision." The noted risks include blind spots in rooms and bathrooms where staff would have trouble seeing a girl trying to harm herself -- and protrusions like pipes and lighting fixtures that youth could attach sheets and clothing to hang themselves.

In the report, the auditor said the administration was open to suggestions and recommendations and made multiple modifications following concerns that were identified, like "the removal of a large glass mirror in the school bathroom."

Child Advocate Sarah Eagan said these risks are not new to DCF when considering the 12-bed facility, which opened in 2014 in the former Riverview Hospital.

"A lot of things we see here -- the exposed beams on the bottom floor, blind spots in areas -- those have always existed," Eagan said. "It's concerning that a facility for some of the state's highest risk girls, a secure treatment program that was needed because girls are a risk to themselves or others opened with those types of concerns."

At the Juvenile Training School for Boys, there were multiple instances of blind spots in rooms, unsecured furniture, and uncovered sprinklers which youth could use to hang ligatures. The auditor noted in the report, one youth managed to knock the sprinkler and flooded the room. The boy also used a piece of metal from that sprinkler to cut himself.

The auditor also found that staff did not make use of an electronic monitoring system already in place to remind them to do 5 minute checks of kids under safety watches.

CJTS Superintendent William Rosenbeck told lawmakers on Wednesday they're working on a plan to make improvements to the programming and also to the physical buildings.

"As far as how much can we do at no cost, minimal cost, and really how much investment-wise we want to put into major changes with the plan to close CJTS," Rosenbeck said.

DCF is working on a plan to shutter the Training School and Pueblo after Governor Dannel Malloy said he wanted to see the state's two locked facilities for juveniles closed by July 1, 2018.

On Thursday, Rosenbeck said "We've been open 15 years and staff have kept kids safe. When we got the report, there are certain things we can do that are zero or minimal cost. We can re-caulk areas, we can cut down pull cords or safety cords and make them 6 inches versus 2 feet now."

He added, "But when you're talking about renovating a bathroom, those are big ticket items that we can't do now. But again those are areas kids are in minimally and when when they are in there, they are supervised. So that's how we address that area."

Rosenbeck said other recommendations they've acted on is coming up with a process for a youth when a safety watch has ended. He said staff will now follow up with a kid three, ten, and 30 days after a safety watch.

Since January, DCF said there aren't any girls at Pueblo. And earlier this month, Deputy Commissioner Fernando Muniz said the boys population at CJTS was down to 41.



Sincerely,

Sarah Healy Eagan, JD
Child Advocate for the State of Connecticut
Office of the Child Advocate
999 Asylum Street
Hartford, CT 06106
Ph. 860-566-2106
Fax. 860-566-2251

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