Juvenile Justice bills before General Assembly aim to stop the car thefts [Courant]

Article as it appeared in the Hartford Courant

An outcry from the police and the public is ringing in lawmakers’ ears: do something about this deadly outbreak of juvenile car thefts and reckless driving in Connecticut.

The crisis continued with the death of an innocent driver in Hartford on Saturday, on the heels of the death last month in Durham of the 17-year-old passenger of a stolen Mercedes that crashed at high speed and flipped.

The judiciary and public-safety committees have responded with four bills that make it easier to detain juveniles who steal cars and have a serious record, or to transfer them to adult court.

One of them, sponsored by Sen. Len Fasano, a Republican of North Haven, may have the best chance of passage in June.

Christine Rapillo, the state’s chief public defender, said the bill has something for both the police and child advocates.

The bill more narrowly targets a group of repeat offenders and it gives judges guidance in determining whether to detain these young car thieves before trial as risks to public safety.

Police officials have told lawmakers that judges need to have more latitude in detaining repeat offenders, while advocates question the value of detention without treatment.

Fasano’s bill also requires the young offenders to be evaluated for behavioral-health treatment and allows for the postponement of the case for up to one year while the juvenile, under supervision by probation officer, pursues that treatment.

The judge could dismiss the charges if the teen successfully completes the program.

There would also be an attempt to extract, from the kids themselves, the reasons why they are driven to commit senseless mayhem.

Saturday, 44-year-old Jose Mendoza of Hartford was killed when his SUV was rammed by a stolen car with juveniles inside.

At least four people were in a silver four-door Chrysler, stolen from East Haddam, that slammed into Mendoza’s SUV at Broad and Grand streets about 12:45 p.m., police said. The impact sent the SUV into a parking lot, where it smashed into a parked car.

Rescue crews worked for more than 15 minutes to help Mendoza, who was trapped in the SUV. Firefighters freed him and performed CPR before an ambulance took him to Hartford Hospital. Police announced later that he had died.

The Chrysler, along with a another vehicle stolen from Bristol, had encountered troopers on Route 2 on March 31. The cars raced away. The car stolen from Bristol was stopped, and its 15-year-old driver arrested, but the Chrysler — which had left the highway and sped around Glastonbury – slipped away, only to resurface Saturday afternoon.

The outbreak of stolen cars and lethal joy rides has laid bare several questions:

How far should the state go in overhauling juvenile court when all other juvenile crime continues to decline?

In fact, there’s a proposal in one of the bills that would prohibit kids under 18 from being held in adult jails by July 1, 2021. That flows from an investigation by Child Advocate Sarah Eagan into substandard confinement at the adult jails, including an overuse of segregation and pepper spray, and a resulting series of recommendations by the Juvenile Justice Oversight Committee.

Eagan said the juvenile justice system should be responsible for even the most difficult young offenders, given the mounting body of evidence that mental-health treatment and education do a better job in decreasing crime than adult prison.

If money is a reflection of commitment, just how serious are the legislators and Gov. Ned Lamont about having enough locked wards and less secure “step-down” programs for young offenders moving toward community release?
The Judicial Branch asked for $28.5 million to build what it considers a sufficient network, but Lamont’s budget proposal cut that figure by $11 million.

Right now, there are 24 secure beds for kids who have been convicted, 12 each in a separate sections of the short-term New Haven and Bridgeport juvenile detention centers.

That’s several dozen less than what the controversial Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown had before it was shut in January 2018 and the most troubled kids in the juvenile system were transferred from the Department of Children and Families to Judicial.

There’s also 20 of the step-down or transitional beds, eight in Waterbury and 12 in Milford, for kids who are getting closer to release or don’t need to be in the higher security setting.

Gary Roberge, executive director of Judicial’s Court Support Services Division, said in an interview Monday that he hopes to have up to 40 beds in each category by the fall.

Though there were no takers when Judicial first put out feelers in the private sector for a locked program, Roberge said he’s optimistic the state will have at least one contractor soon.

“Other states have done well with private providers and at some point we will have the network that is necessary,” Roberge said.

Fasano, in testimony before his colleagues, said his proposal seeks to improve safety while increasing programs that can divert young offenders from crime.

Rapillo said that new laws generally don’t stop outbreaks of one particular crime or another, at least not swiftly.
She said it takes a combination of approaches.

“For the kids who need it, you can detain them to stabilize them. Meanwhile, you put a program together that gets to the bottom of why kids are committing these crimes and address it,” she said.