What should Connecticut do with juvenile criminal offenders, who are increasingly a problem?

By legislation this year the General Assembly and Governor Lamont required the Judicial Department to develop a plan for removing minors from adult prisons. That the Judicial Department has anything to do with administering prisons is a gross violation of the constitutional principle of separation of executive and judicial powers. Juvenile prisons or detention facilities or whatever they are to be called should be operated by an Executive Department agency like the Correction Department or Department of Children and Families, not courts.

But the Judicial Department appointed a committee as instructed, and this month it made a recommendation: that the former Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown, closed five years ago on the premise that there is too much imprisonment, be renovated at a cost of $24 million to become more "nurturing" and that imprisoned minors be transferred there.

The social work industry, euphemized as "juvenile justice advocates," immediately objected to the idea. One such advocate scorned the idea for lacking "creativity." Others would like to see smaller facilities for juvenile offenders, like group homes with a psychiatric focus, in which juvenile offenders might get the humane-sounding but imaginary cure -- "the help they need" -- though by the time a minor works his way into prison in Connecticut, his offenses have to be numerous and serious enough to show that his character is already permanently damaged.

Prison may not rehabilitate much but it prevents people from committing more crime until they are released, and Connecticut is overrun with repeat offenders, with 43% of its parolees returning to prison within three years of their release and many more committing crimes without getting caught again.

Indeed, even as the social work industry was objecting to continued imprisonment of repeat juvenile offenders, police in Branford reported that in one night they had just arrested 10 juveniles from New Haven and West Haven in connection with an assault and two attempted car thefts.

The police said the arrested youths are between 12 and 16, six already had criminal records, and four were wearing global position system ankle bracelets -- that is, they were being tracked electronically as a condition of their release, to deter them from committing more crimes. Still, despite their youth and criminal records they were out at night two or three towns away from home stealing cars.

For there is little deterrence when young offenders know that society’s behavioral standards are weak and "juvenile justice advocates" will ensure that there is no meaningful punishment for them for anything short of murder. Similarly there is little education when students know, as most in Connecticut do, that since their schools no longer have academic standards they will be promoted from grade to grade and given high school diplomas even if they learn nothing.

Students who pay attention may even realize that political cover for their lack of effort is being provided by teacher unions, which blame proficiency testing for poor academic performance. But proficiency testing doesn’t cause poor student performance; proficiency testing just measures it, and if proficiency testing can be eliminated, the collapse of public education may be concealed.

The social work industry wants "creative" thinking about juvenile justice, but nothing "creative" is necessary, for a return to the old ways may do fine. Children are only as good as their parents, just as schools are only as good as their students. To address juvenile crime and the collapse of public education, state government might inquire into why so many children in Connecticut today have no parents, or at least none to speak of. What has caused the crash in parenting? How is it related to public policy?

If no standards are enforced at home, in juvenile justice, and in school, what is to deter anarchy in society? Pursuing that question would be creative enough, especially in light of the courage it would require from feckless elected officials who prattle about the "help" young offenders need.

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Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years. (CPowell@cox.net)