Connecticut should invest more in a safe reentry for incarcerated youth

Being arrested and convicted of a crime inevitably disrupts a young person’s educational journey. This is especially true when they are discharged from the juvenile justice system and returned to the community.

Unlike in the adult system, Connecticut does not have a centralized system for youth reentry into society. This means young people and their families, who are already struggling to maneuver between appointments and driving all over the state, can find it almost impossible to successfully reenter the school system after conviction. Due to the lack of help and available resources, most families give up, which results in their children finding themselves back in the system.

Nationally, every year, over 100,000 youths are being sent back into communities with high crime rates, poverty, and unstable households with little to no resources.

But change is underway. The Reentry Success Plan is being developed to help thousands of youth students every year minimize the chances of recidivism. To create the Reentry Success Plan, the legislature’s Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee (JJPOC) created a subcommittee that includes four state agencies: Departments of Housing, Labor, Mental Health and Addiction Services, and Social Services, to establish a reentry plan best suited for Connecticut. Through this effective Reentry Success Plan, young individuals can cultivate resilience and transition into thriving adults.

[RELATED: Prioritizing reentry from prison will boost CT’s economy, report says]

One of the first things to tackle is the lack of education coordination and transition support. The Department of Children and Families has been working to improve educational programs inside juvenile justice facilities themselves. Still, a huge struggle remains regarding receiving and transferring school records in Connecticut. School systems are not receiving regular updates from the facilities, and there is an extreme lack of notice when the students are returning from the system. There is also a lack of available resources for youths who are on house arrest having no access to education, making it hard to stay on track.

Second, there is a lack of leadership and mentors for young people leaving the system, and the reentry plan seeks to fix that. Returning young people need supportive individuals, such as credible messengers who are there to help them with their reentry after their sentence. A credible messenger is an individual who has themselves been involved in the criminal system and has successfully reentered into society. They are then hired to be trustworthy mentors to assist now incarnated people in entering back into society successfully. Due to a lack of funding, public juvenile programs have few available resources for a mentor system, which is entirely unacceptable. Even if youths can receive a credible messenger, they are only with them for up to 6 months after they are released, which is not an adequate amount of time for successful reentry.

Finally, young people involved in the justice system have increased mental health disorders in comparison to the general public. In 2022, more than 63% of youths who found themselves in detention programs had mental health concerns, and this needs to be dealt with. As a society, we cannot leave the youth out to dry with no available resources. In Connecticut, there are significant waitlists for community-based mental health services and no access to psychiatric medication management.

In all, JJPOC is working its way through ten recommendations to improve the reentry plan. A report on the Connecticut Reentry Success Plan says that, “6 out of 10 youths said they want to have a designated entity to coordinate their services.” This centralized and coordinated approach, which brings together services for mental health, substance abuse, education, employment, housing, and other issues, has worked well for adults reentering the community. In 2023, a report noted that a Bridgeport Reentry Center had a 98% success rate. Only five of the 263 adult returners were rearrested.

The second recommendation involves expanded access to mentorship. The credible messenger’s main goal is to create trust and build positive relationships with the youth and the families to be a reliable and trustworthy resource after the release. The report recommends that additional funding is needed to eliminate waitlists for credible messengers and provide 24 months of support in the community.

The third most important recommendation is to improve education transition planning and access to education support services. According to the report, “14 out of 38 youth had a goal for themselves one year from now to still be in school, closer to graduation, or in college, and 22 out of 37 youth stated that successful reentry into the community looked like ‘attending school.’” Education is one of the most pivotal aspects of the success of this program, and the connection students have once they reentry into their school systems needs to remain at the forefront of this program.

Young people are critical to the future of our community. Successful reentry prioritizes the needs of youth and addresses all aspects of youth success after being released from juvenile programs. It lays a foundation for their lives ahead of them, and the state must take the time to address these needs that all our communities face.

There has been an increase in support from the legislature in Connecticut, but we can not stop there. We need to continue to bring awareness to this problem that is happening right in front of our eyes and expand the reentry program throughout the state, as a successful way to stop the road to reconviction.

Ally Soucy is a junior at Trinity College, majoring in Public Policy and Law.