April 17, 2001
REP. MUSHINSKY OPPOSES REPEAL OF YOUTH CRISIS PROGRAM
Says Connecticut kids deserve the same chance as other youth throughout the country
State Representative Mary Mushinsky recently testified before the Judiciary Committee in opposition of section 3 of H.B. 6713: An Act Concerning the Judicial Department and Sheriff Salaries. Section 3 of the bill repeals the newly-passed Youth in Crisis Program.
"All youth advocates whether Democrat, Republican, urban, suburban or rural know that Connecticut’s young people deserve the same legal protection until adulthood that the rest of the country grants their youth," said Mushinsky, House Chair of Select Committee on Children.
Recent evidence indicates that teens do not achieve frontal lobe development until age 18. The frontal lobe provides higher brain functions such as weighing the consequences of choices. A teen can make impulsive decisions at age 16 that mystify adults resulting in long-term detrimental and expensive consequences like leaving home, school or job training, or living an unstructured life in the streets. Parents were not able to receive legal supervision by a court or caring adult as long as the child was 16 or 17.
"The Youth in Crisis Program would provide assistance to families in need," said Mushinsky. "The Select Committee on Children heard six years of horror stories from parents of children whose lives were destroyed or impaired by bad choices. These choices led to economic failure, criminal behavior, early pregnancy, and even death in a couple of cases."
According to the Office of Legislative Research, a slot at the Manson Youth Institute costs $29,868 per bed per year and from $5,057 per slot for the Gateway Program to $80,586 for residential programs for women (average cost is $16,713 per slot per year).
Rep. Mushinsky also states, "We won’t save $1 million by removing youth from legal protection. We’ll spend more than that on unskilled, damaged and lost people."
The budget-implementing bill, introduced by the Governor’s office, would seize all funding from the Youth in Crisis Program. This bill, which was passed last session, is scheduled to be effective July 1, 2001.