Hartford CourantDecember 10, 2018
… intervention and community programs that could be instrumental in keeping kids out of the system have not been funded by the state. “Put a kid in detention for two weeks and nothing is different except they are more angry,” Anderson said…
Kathryn Scheinberg Meyer, a Wethersfield resident and attorney at the Center for Children’s Advocacy, said the state needs to find solutions that effectively rehabilitate juvenile offenders and prevent them from re-entering the system. Studies have shown that prison time does little to prevent juveniles from repeat off ending or re-entering the system. “We want to make it better and safer for all residents and we don’t need to do this at the expense of creating more myths and stereotypes,” Meyer said. “It’s not that it’s not fair to kids, its that it doesn’t work.”
Leon Smith, one of Meyer’s colleagues at CCA, said the Caruthers Institute in Florida studied teen car thefts and came up with strategies to address the issue.
“and it’s not about tougher penalties, it’s about addressing the underlying behavior,” Smith said.
