January 19, 2011

PROGRESS IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE

By Rep. Toni Walker and Sen. Toni Harp

The state is undeniably in a financial crisis, one that has caused and will continue to cause real pain. Though this forces us to make hard choices on a daily basis, we believe that it is still possible to innovate, to imagine new and better ways for the state to conduct its business. In fact, it is not only possible; it is essential.

Connecticut will never be the economic powerhouse it can and should be so long as we spend more money on incarceration than we do on higher education. We are literally investing in failure. Thankfully, our state has been making substantial progress in creating programs that get kids on the right track long before they come in contact with the criminal system. Most people know that prevention saves money in the long run. But government often fails to embrace prevention because we are sadly caught up in short election cycles and now in 24-hour news cycles. We want prevention to pay off right now. But here’s the magical thing about investing in kids: It pays off now as well as later.

Taxpayers spend $377 per night every time we put a child in juvenile detention, providing a child with an experience more likely to traumatize him than rehabilitate him. In fiscal year 2006-2007, we sent 493 children to detention who had not even committed a crime. They were runaways, kids fighting with parents, and so on. Last year, we did not lock up a single child for that kind of behavior. Overall detention numbers went from 1,901 to 1,248 in that period. That’s a quarter of a million dollars in savings for every day those kids did not spend in detention. The mean stay in juvenile detention in Connecticut is 14 days.

Why the drop in census? Connecticut decided to start putting its money at the front end of the system, where we can do the most good, rather than the back end of the system, where we spend the most money for the least impressive results. We started providing more services at the community level to address troubling problems like truancy or family dysfunction before children got involved in delinquency. In minor cases of delinquent behavior, we looked for ways to hold children accountable in school and at home without sending them to secure facilities. The juvenile court saw more than 16,000 new delinquency cases in 2003-04 and less than 8,000 last year.

As the juvenile system got smaller, we saw the opportunity to add 16-year-olds accused of minor offenses to the juvenile system. Connecticut had been one of only three states to try these young people as adults, no matter now minor the charge, and to send them to facilities run by adult corrections. Most states set the age of adulthood at 18 because copious data show that the juvenile system is better at rehabilitation, having been designed for that express purpose. Furthermore, juveniles sent to adult court are more likely to escalate into violence.

The transition of adding 16-year-olds to the juvenile system went even better than we could have hoped. While we’d heard predictions that the size of the system would surge 40 percent when older children were included, actual numbers were only 22 percent. Law enforcement had seats at the table when the legislation was drafted, so accommodations were made to ensure that police could investigate cases without undue impediments and that existing facilities would be adequate.

Continuing smart policies that keep kids on the right track will mean that the system can stay lean enough to absorb 17-year-olds as well in 2012. This is a win-win situation. We’ll be diverting kids who don’t belong in the juvenile system to more cost-effective community services. We’ll be easing overcrowding in the adult system and at the same time sending teens where they’ll get training they need to contribute to society rather than be a perpetual burden upon it.

It is easy to get caught up in the moment, particularly in hard times. But we can address the challenges of the present while working toward a better future. We owe our kids – and ourselves – nothing less.

Toni Edmonds Walker represents New Haven in the state House of Representatives. She is House Chair of the Appropriations Committee.

Senator Toni N. Harp represents the 10th District (New Haven and West Haven) in the state Senate. She is Senate Chair of the Appropriations Committee.