Connecticut Department of Children and Families
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Government of Connecticut |
| Headquarters | 505 Hudson Street Hartford, CT 06106 |
| Minister responsible | |
| Website | http://www.ct.gov/dcf/site/default.asp |
The Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) is a state agency of Connecticut providing family services. Its headquarters are in Hartford.
In 1989, a group of plaintiffs instituted an action against the Connecticut DCF which resulted in a requirement for federal court supervision of DCF, which has continued for more than 20 years to date. The Connecticut DCF, as recently as 2012, was under this supervision due to its inability to correct the problems identified.
The Bureau of Juvenile Services operates the state's correctional facilities for children; it received its current name in 2003. The Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS) is the state's secure facility for delinquent boys. The CJTS is located in Middletown. The $57 million juvenile correctional center opened in August 2001. The Walter G. Cady School of the Unified School District #2 (USD #2) serves residents of the CJTS.
The state of Connecticut used to operate the Long Lane School in Middletown, a juvenile correctional facility for boys and girls of the ages 11–16. The facility, which was locked and high-security facility. As of 2002 about 35 girls resided there. The facility had three cottages for boys and one for girls.
In 2002 the Government of Connecticut announced that the Long Lane School, then the state's designated juvenile center for girls, was closing. Girls were moved to the Connecticut Children's Place in East Windsor. The closure occurred after the Attorney General of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, and a state child advocate, Jeanne Milstein, investigated a suicide attempt at Long Lane and then asked DCF to review its practices regarding the safety of delinquent girls. Long Lane was scheduled to close on December 30, 2003.
By 2002 several adjudicated girls had run away from Children's Place, which was designed as an open community.
By 2009 the state was using York Correctional Institution, an adult women's prison, to house some delinquent girls ages 15-18, who had committed crimes as juveniles. As of February 2014, two girls were assigned to York, 21 girls were in pre-trial facilities, and no girls were out of state. One girl was waiting to get into Journey House, a secure facility for girls; Journey House is a privately operated facility on the property of Natchaug Hospital in Mansfield Center.
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