Fewer Connecticut youths are behind bars than 15 years ago and far less than other states, a new report says.
The rate of locking up juvenile delinquents fell 65 percent in Connecticut, with no decrease in public safety, according to the report from the nonprofit Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Nationally, the confinement rate for troubled youth dropped more than 40 percent from 1995 to 2010, the Casey report said.
Entitled Kids County Data Snapshot, the Casey report indicates that the number of young people in correctional facilities on a single day in the U.S. fell to 70,792 in 2010, from a high of 107,637 in 1995. However, the U.S. leads the industrialized world in the number of incarcerated children, the report said.
This downward trend, revealed in data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement, has accelerated in recent years.
Release of the report comes as lawmakers in Connecticut and other budget-strapped states weigh the relative merits – and value – of social programs, including ones that attempt to intervene with at-risk youths and their families before they find trouble with the law.
“Connecticut achieved these gains in part by relying on community-based programs, which are cheaper and more effective than incarceration,” said Jillian Gilchrest, assistant policy director for Connecticut Association for Human Services, an advocacy body. “As the state goes through the budget process, it’s important to protect these money-saving programs.”
