JJIE.org Juvenile Justice Information ExchangeApril 2, 2020
A coalition of juvenile justice advocates in Connecticut are calling on state leadership to take action to protect juveniles currently held in detention from the COVID-19 pandemic before it is too late. They urge the release of youth held in both the adult and juvenile systems and want more preventative measures to be put in place to prevent the spread of the virus within facilities in the meantime.
Advocates like Marisa Halm worry about how sustainable this is and what the effects of such isolation will be on the youth in the short and long term.
“Access to mental health staff is at the forefront,” said Halm, the director of the TeamChild Youth Justice project at the Center for Children’s Advocacy. The DOC has reassured them that mental health staff will make sure to check in more often with the youth in their custody, she said, but they still worry about the stress caused by the isolation and by the pandemic itself.
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