Connecticut

2018 SJPD Connecticut Team (State-level) 

Contacts: 

Tianna Hill, Project Coordinator, Child Health and Development Institute

Devon McCormick, Restorative Justice Project Manager, Tow Youth Justice Institute, University of New Haven

Patrice McCarthy, Deputy Director and General Counsel, Connecticut Association of Boards of Education

Daisy Ortiz, Program Manager, State of CT Judicial Branch - CSSD

Jill Ruggiero, Detective/Youth Bureau Sergeant, Westport Police Department

Lauren Ruth, Advocacy Director, Connecticut Voices for Children

Capstone Description:

The project aims to increase school-based diversion knowledge and buy-in, as well as to promote effective school-based diversion models. To achieve their goals, the team plans to create a state-wide school-based diversion inventory and to organize conversations on restorative practices with key stakeholders.

2015 DIV Connecticut Team (State-level)

Contacts:

Erica Bromley, Juvenile Justice Liaison, CT Youth Services Association

Yecenia Casiano, Project Coordinator, Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut, Inc.

Sara Jeffries, Research Staff, Tow Youth Justice

Daisy Ortiz, Program Manager, State of CT Judicial Branch, Court Support Services Division

Steven Smith, Program Manager, CT Department of Children and Families

Catherine (Kitty) Tyrol, Curriculum Developer/Instructor, Tow Youth Justice

Capstone Description:

Aims to reduce youth contact with the juvenile justice system, particularly youth with behavioral health needs through creating and implementing standardized protocols and guidance for the Juvenile Review Boards, identifying appropriate screening tools, enhancing school and community-based services, and utilizing restorative justice practices.

Capstone Update (2017):

1. Sustainability: The team members are serving on an early iteration of the Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee (JJPOC) Diversion Workgroup, a legislatively bound committee aiming to reform the juvenile justice system in Connecticut. The team has dovetailed their Capstone Project within the JJPOC Diversion Workgroup and subgroups. As a result, JJPOC Diversion Workgroup prioritized and participated in several projects related to the team's Capstone, such as:

    a. Developed the Community-Based Diversion Plan, which was put forward into legislation for implementation and possible funding.

    b. Developing a response to the removal of Truancy and Defiance of School Rules as status offenses

    c. Developing a School-Based Diversion Plan

    d. Identifying a screening tool for Youth Service Bureaus

2. Creating standardized protocols: The team has completed the JRB Protocols and Procedures Guide, which was released/introduced at the Statewide JRB/LIST Conference in June 2016, and copyrighted in late 2016. Each JRB in the state is reviewing the guide separately on their own schedule, but the Juvenile Justice Liaison has continued to provide training and technical assistance. 

3. Identifying screening tools: The team has done a thorough review of various screening tools and recommended CT to go forward with the Ohio Scales for Youth, which is already being used in several systems in some CT state agencies and community-based organizations. The team has also identified to concurrent projects in the jurisdiction working on improving the screening process. One project is an initiative supported by A-SBIRT grant, specifically looking at substance use screening for adolescents and training on the use of A-SBIRT and CRAFFT. The other project is a 2-year planning grant, IMPACCT, which is aiming to increase access to treatment and improve quality of services. This grant has the potential to lead to a 3-year implementation grant that can fund the development of screening tools. 

4. Utilizing restorative practices: The team is facilitating restorative practices trainings across CT, and the School-Based Diversion Initiative is promoting restorative justice training and collaboration in 12 CT schools between September 2016 and June 2017. In addition, the team will help create a consortium of Restorative Justice practitioners. The collaboration is expected to expand to six more school districts and up to 18 schools in the next two years.

Connecticut (2012 ISCP)

Contacts: 

Elizabeth Duryea, Director of Development - Department of Children and Families

Allon Kalisher, Regional Administrator - Connecticut Department of Children and Families

Karina Lewis, Senior Policy Associate - Annie E. Casey Foundation

Diane Murphy, Education Consultant - Connecticut Department of Education

William Rosenbeck, Superintendent, Connecticut Juvenile Training School - State of Connecticut, Department of Children and Families

Ellen Ross, Senior Research Analyst - Annie E. Casey Foundation *NOTE* Ellen is no longer with Annie E. Casey Foundation and no longer involved in the Capstone Project.

Capstone Description: 

Convene an inter-agency work group, including Departments of Education (SDE) and Children and Families (DCF), to brainstorm information sharing ideas.

Capstone Update (2017): 

The team has executed the Access to Education Information MOU between SDE and DCF to share confidential student information upon permission being granted by parents, and there has been more intentional collaboration with local school districts based on the framework developed as a result of the Capstone Project. DCF now has an "educational dashboard" replete with educational performance statistics for youth in its care. *The Capstone Project was successfully concluded*

2011 MSI (Public) Connecticut Team (State-level)

Contacts:

Elizabeth Duryea, Research Attorney III - Connecticut Judicial Branch, Court Operations Division

Catherine Foley Geib, Manager of Clinical and Educational Services - State of Connecticut Judicial Branch, Court Support Services Division

Valerie LaMotte, Policy Development Coordinator - State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management

Fernando Muñiz, Chief of Quality and Planning - Connecticut Department of Children and Families

Melanie Rossacci, Court Planner II - State of Connecticut Judicial Branch, Court Support Services Division

Capstone Description:

Produce and analyze a data snapshot of Connecticut’s juvenile court-involved crossover youth to determine:

1. If this population experiences less favorable outcomes.

2. What strategies could be put in place to better serve crossover youth (e.g., legislative reforms, data-sharing projects, Memoranda of Agreement, etc.). 

3. Their demographics and risk factors.

Capstone Update (2015):

The team established an interagency dataset that included court data for child protection, status offense, and delinquency cases, as well as DCF child welfare data to identify the crossover youth population by establishing a birth cohort dataset for children born between 1996 and 2002. The team is in the process of analysis of the dataset, which will help provide a better understanding of the crossover youth population in Connecticut. As a result of the Multisystem Integration Certificate Program and Capstone Project, the judicial branch and DCF are piloting the Crossover Youth Practice Model (CYPM) at the Waterford Juvenile Court.

2009 MSI Connecticut Team (State-level)

Contact:

Anne McIntyre-Lahner, Program Director - Interagency Strategic Planning and Coordination, State of Connecticut, Department of Children and Families

Capstone Description:

Ensure that successful identification, screening, and case-planning protocols and treatment options for target youth (some of whom are crossover youth) - as outlined by the Emily J. Settlement Agreement - become ongoing  Department of Children and Families practice.  Target youth include children incarcerated on a pre-trial basis, who are at imminent risk for residential placement at the time of sentencing, and who can be diverted from residential treatment through comprehensive community-based treatment and joint case planning.  Accomplish this by revising current MOU and corresponding services and mechanisms.

2016 SJP Hartford Participant

Contact:

Christopher Leone, Superintendent of Schools, CT Department of Children and Families

Capstone Description:

Provide individual, competency-based opportunities to at-risk children involved with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) in Connecticut through developing a sustainability plan for Unified School District #2 Virtual Academy.

2008 MSI CPI Hartford, CT Partipant

Contact:

Ann-Marie DeGraffenreidt, Director of Program Development - Bureau of Juvenile Services/Department of Children and Families

Capstone Description:

Map and then fill gaps in services to youth involved in the juvenile justice system.