With juvenile crime often generating headlines, state officials are searching for an alternative to the now-closed prison in Middletown in order to help troubled youth.

Officials in the judicial branch told state legislators Tuesday that they are searching for alternatives to the Connecticut Juvenile Training School that was closed under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in 2018.

Youths who have been charged with crimes are often held at detention centers in Hartford and Bridgeport, but officials are searching for a new facility that would have a variety of programs to help the troubled youths have a better chance at becoming productive adults.

Gary A. Roberge, executive director of the judicial branch’s court support services division, cited the community residential program in Hamden that provides “coaching, mentoring, teaching” through educational and vocational programs. Roberge said officials are looking to duplicate the quality of the Hamden facility as they search for the best possible spot in the state.

“We did look at Southbury Training School,” Roberge told lawmakers on the budget-writing appropriations committee. “We’re still in the process of working to get a more expedited review of certain state properties that we could go and look at once they become available. We don’t have anything solidified as of yet, but it’s in motion. We have a lot of options that we’re continuing to explore.”

State Rep. Toni Walker of New Haven, a key player as the co-chairwoman of the budget committee, said the additional location is necessary.

“We’re not trying to build a large facility,” Walker told Roberge during a public hearing. “We’re just trying to accommodate the kids that we need to.”

Walked noted that Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget calls for $5 million for renovations at the Manson Youth Institution, a prison in Cheshire for boys under 18.

But House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford said the state should still make the best use of the Middletown training school because it has become an underutilized asset that the state spent millions to build.

“If you tour the facility, the classrooms are really state of the art,” Candelora told The Courant in an interview. “There could be an opportunity to turn that school into an educational facility for incarcerated youth. We have duplicated that model in Hamden at that regional center in a very similar format to what the training school was. It would make sense to look at that model and try to repeat it elsewhere. … It’s mothballed [in Middletown], but it could be reopened. The sleeping quarters, I think, need renovation, but the school classrooms are pretty nice classrooms.”

With troubled youths stealing cars, Candelora says the state is moving too slowly in finding places for juvenile criminals.

“We don’t have enough beds,” Candelora said. “I think the state closed things too quickly and didn’t have an alternative plan. … Children are falling through the cracks.”

Training school

The training school in Middletown has a long history.

Constructed during the get-tough-on-crime years under Republican Gov. John G. Rowland, the prison has been the focus of controversy for years as some officials said it was not an appropriate place to rehabilitate juvenile offenders and turn them into responsible adults.

In 2022, a special task force of the judicial branch said the state should reopen the controversial juvenile jail to combat an ongoing crime wave that experts attributed to a small group of repeat young criminals.

State legislators analyzed the recommendations, which were contained in a 101-page report by a 26-member task force that was appointed to look into improving juvenile justice.

The broader context is that the federal justice department said in December 2021 that the state had been endangering young people held at the Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire by providing inadequate mental health and special education services, and punishing them with isolation.

The justice department issued its findings after visiting Manson and conducting a detailed investigation.

Statewide, a relatively small group of about 200 to 400 youths statewide are causing a majority of the crime problems, according to police and legislators.

In the detailed report on the Manson facility in Cheshire, the federal justice department noted that it serves troubled youth between the ages of 14 and 17 with longtime problems.

“Most have significant histories of learning disabilities and mental illness,” the report said. “Yet, they are deprived of the very services they need to navigate the correctional environment and develop skills and competencies to become productive, successful adults — and to which they are entitled under the law. When they misbehave, they are frequently subjected to harmful periods of disciplinary isolation, regardless of whether their conduct reflects typical adolescent behavior, whether it is a result of a failure to receive entitled services, or whether isolation will improve their behavior or facility security.”

In 2021, Lamont considered reopening the facility in Middletown when he was asked personally by Vice President Kamala Harris to find a spot to house migrant children who were being kept in detention centers along the Texas border after fleeing from their Central American countries.

After visiting the facility with his wife, Annie, and others, Lamont was impressed by the wide range of services for youths.

“It’s got the classrooms,” Lamont said. “It’s got the cafeterias. It’s got the soccer fields, and it’s got the basketball [courts].”

The idea, though, never came to fruition, and migrants were not sent to the Middletown facility.