Rell Calls For Juvenile Support

By COLIN POITRAS
Courant Staff Writer

January 21 2005

Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Thursday directed state child protection officials to develop better support services for youths at the state's juvenile correctional center, where recidivism is estimated to be as high as 50 percent.

Rell's edict to the Department of Children and Families comes two days after the leader of the state Senate released a preliminary study that he said showed as many as half of the boys recently discharged from the Connecticut Juvenile Training School got into trouble again within six months of their release.

One of those boys, Ortexis Ramos, 15, of Bridgeport, had been out of the Middletown facility for less than six months when he was charged with murder Dec. 7. Ramos, who was released from the training school last June, was charged in connection with the Dec. 4 fatal shooting of 34-year-old Christopher Smith inside an East Main Street apartment.

Because of the seriousness of the charges, Ramos is being prosecuted in adult court. He is being held on bail set at $500,000 pending an evidentiary hearing in Superior Court in Bridgeport on Feb. 2.

"We are investing considerable time, energy and funding at CJTS in an effort to make a real and lasting difference in the lives of young people," Rell said in a letter sent Thursday to DCF Commissioner Darlene Dunbar.

"If large numbers of boys fail to make the transition to the community and they return to CJTS or are sentenced as adults by the courts, we are letting them down and not meeting our obligation to the taxpayers of Connecticut," the governor said.

It costs about $514,000 a year to house a single youth at the $57 million correctional center, which has been plagued by problems since it opened three years ago. State officials closed admissions to the facility last July and reduced the population from 150 to 70 to allow hired experts to overhaul programs and provide additional training.

Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., a former chairman of the state Select Committee on Children, said this week that his preliminary study showed about 30 percent of the boys released last summer ended up returning to the training school for various violations. Another 20 percent - those over the age of 16 - got into trouble in the adult court system.

In response to those findings, Williams on Tuesday asked state Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein to take a closer look at what is happening to the boys at the training school and whether proper supports are in place when they leave.

Rell Thursday asked the DCF to work closely with Milstein in addressing the issue and told Dunbar to report back by March 1. Rell said tracking youths once they are discharged and providing them sufficient support is critical to the training school's success, a position shared by Williams, Milstein and other advocates.

Recent interviews with discharged boys and their families as part of Williams' study revealed that some DCF parole officers were not having regular contact with youths and not telling families about counseling and other supports available to them.

About 50 DCF parole officers oversee about 550 youths statewide. In Ramos' case, DCF officials said the boy had extensive support and services provided to him prior to and after his release.

Admitted to the training school in August 2003 for violating his probation on a second-degree reckless endangerment charge, Ramos received anger management therapy, behavioral therapy and did well in school classes, according to Donald DeVore, DCF's new director of juvenile services.

Therapists pushed for Ramos to stay at the training school an additional two months past his commitment to finish out the academic year, DeVore said.

After his discharge in June, Ramos was seen periodically by a DCF parole officer. He participated in a local youth boat building project offered through DCF and enrolled in his local high school. An outreach worker with Woodfield Family Services reported regular contact with Ramos three to five times a week as part of his discharge plan, DeVore said.

Ramos was also subjected to random drug tests. Yet when Bridgeport police picked Ramos up for questioning at Harding High School on Dec. 7, he had marijuana, police said.

DeVore said he was at a loss to explain how Ramos got caught up in a murder investigation. He pointed out, however, that Ramos was discharged from the training school before many of the latest improvements began.

"Sometimes it's very hard to predict these types of things," DeVore said. "Given the resources available and the parole supervision in place, this was not a kid who was unattended to."

Milstein said she intends to conduct an in-depth review of Ramos' case as part of the larger study ordered by Williams. She said she is particularly interested in the quality of the supervision and whether the written case record accurately reflects the services provided.

She said she was aware of an unrelated case in which a worker reported "contact" with a child but only checked the boy's attendance record at school and never met or spoke to him directly.

DeVore said he recently hired a new director of DCF parole services, and one of their first priorities will be developing new standards and policies to improve supervision in the field. He also hopes to get local schools more involved and to make sure critical therapy and support programs are offered statewide and not just in some areas.

DeVore said that since July much of the focus has been on improving conditions inside the training school. With that well underway, he said the next step is to revamp and bolster services for youths once they are discharged.