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OFFS -- Connecticut Imprisons 16-Year-Old Trans Girl of Color Without Criminal Charges
http://elixher.com/connecticut-imprisons-16-year-old-trans-girl-of-color-without-criminal-charges/A 16-year-old transgender girl is currently being held in an adult prison in Connecticut even though she has not been convicted of any crime and has no criminal charges against her. This is the first time in over a decade that the state’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) has placed a child in an adult prison. A survivor of numerous instances of violence and abuse – including at the hands of DCF staff – Jane Doe is now being held in isolation for 22-23 hours per day, without access to education or contact with peers her own age.
Before being transferred to prison, Jane was in the custody of Connecticut’s DCF for many years. In a rare move, the DCF petitioned to have Jane transferred out of DCF’s care and into an adult male prison. Under heavy criticism and increasing public outrage about this decision, DCF Commissioner Joette Katz recently took to the pages of the Hartford Courant to argue that placing Jane in prison was “the only acceptable option to ensure the safety of the other youths” in DCF’s care. But placing any child in an adult prison is far from “acceptable” – it is dangerous, unjust, and inhumane.
In her public statements about the case, Katz has engaged in a lot of fear-mongering, urging the people of Connecticut and others concerned about Jane’s welfare to take Katz’s word for it that Jane was far too dangerous to remain in DCF’s care. The official story is that Jane endangered other youth in DCF’s custody, and Katz had no option but to send Jane to an adult prison. We do not underestimate the difficulty of managing the competing needs of the youth in DCF’s care, especially since many of these young people, like Jane, have been victims of violence and sexual abuse and exhibit trauma-responsive behaviors as a result. But the fact that the job is a difficult one does not mean that Connecticut should settle for less for Jane or any other child in need. When the Commissioner of DCF begins to describe long-term isolation of any traumatized child as an “acceptable option,” that is a serious problem, and it’s one we shouldn’t stand for.
DCF’s job is to care for all children, and many of the children DCF cares for struggle with outbursts of violence. So why is Jane Doe the only child in fourteen years DCF has sought to have transferred to an adult prison? Transphobia may be part of the answer. DCF previously placed Jane in a facility for boys, then petitioned the court to have her transferred to Manson, an adult male prison facility. Jane is now at a women’s prison, but that is the result of a decision by Department of Corrections (DoC), not DCF. It is also an exception to the DoC’s standard policy of placing transgender women in male prisons – a policy DCF knew about when it moved to have Jane transferred to the DoC.
Before being transferred to prison, Jane was in the custody of Connecticut’s DCF for many years. In a rare move, the DCF petitioned to have Jane transferred out of DCF’s care and into an adult male prison. Under heavy criticism and increasing public outrage about this decision, DCF Commissioner Joette Katz recently took to the pages of the Hartford Courant to argue that placing Jane in prison was “the only acceptable option to ensure the safety of the other youths” in DCF’s care. But placing any child in an adult prison is far from “acceptable” – it is dangerous, unjust, and inhumane.
In her public statements about the case, Katz has engaged in a lot of fear-mongering, urging the people of Connecticut and others concerned about Jane’s welfare to take Katz’s word for it that Jane was far too dangerous to remain in DCF’s care. The official story is that Jane endangered other youth in DCF’s custody, and Katz had no option but to send Jane to an adult prison. We do not underestimate the difficulty of managing the competing needs of the youth in DCF’s care, especially since many of these young people, like Jane, have been victims of violence and sexual abuse and exhibit trauma-responsive behaviors as a result. But the fact that the job is a difficult one does not mean that Connecticut should settle for less for Jane or any other child in need. When the Commissioner of DCF begins to describe long-term isolation of any traumatized child as an “acceptable option,” that is a serious problem, and it’s one we shouldn’t stand for.
DCF’s job is to care for all children, and many of the children DCF cares for struggle with outbursts of violence. So why is Jane Doe the only child in fourteen years DCF has sought to have transferred to an adult prison? Transphobia may be part of the answer. DCF previously placed Jane in a facility for boys, then petitioned the court to have her transferred to Manson, an adult male prison facility. Jane is now at a women’s prison, but that is the result of a decision by Department of Corrections (DoC), not DCF. It is also an exception to the DoC’s standard policy of placing transgender women in male prisons – a policy DCF knew about when it moved to have Jane transferred to the DoC.
This is literally everything that is wrong with America's penal system in one story.
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