|
A 17-year-old's suicide at a state prison Sunday is
causing a furor among child and mental health advocates who have
been fighting for years to get troubled youths out of the state's
adult prison system.
"This is a terrible tragedy and our office has begun
an investigation," state Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein said.
Milstein's comments came the day after David Burgos
of Bristol hanged himself with a bed sheet at the Manson Youth Institution
in Cheshire, the state's high-security prison for young men aged
14 to 21.
One child advocate questioned whether the conditions
of Burgos' pretrial confinement were a violation of his constitutional
rights.
Burgos had a history of mental illness and struggled
with bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,
relatives said.
He was sent to Manson in March for violating his probation
after allegedly being caught stealing, his paternal aunt Neomi Perry
said.
Burgos' mother, Diana Gonzalez, said Monday that she
doesn't understand why state officials allowed her son to sign himself
out of DCF custody when he turned 16. Burgos had been under DCF
custody and guardianship since he was 10.
He was "a special DCF case, a kid with a lot of needs,"
Gonzalez said as she prepared for her son's funeral. "That's why
I was surprised when DCF let him sign off at 16. Those are the questions
and answers I want."
State officials are looking into Burgos' death, and
several agencies began taking immediate steps Monday to ensure that
other incarcerated children are safe.
The state Department of Correction, the Department
of Children and Families, the Office of Protection and Advocacy
and the Office of the Child Advocate are all launching investigations
into Burgos' death.
"This individual was not convicted of a crime," said
James McGaughey, executive director of the Office of Protection
and Advocacy. "You have to wonder if there were alternatives available
instead of sending him to jail. That's of greater concern to me
... How does a kid this age wind up there, particularly someone
with a history of mental illness?"
Relatives described Burgos as a charming teen, rambunctious
at times, who loved playing the clown and dreamed of becoming a
crocodile hunter or pro basketball player.
"He was a typical youth, always joking," Perry said.
"He was a lot like my father; he had a joke to everything. He was
a loving kid, the illnesses that he had didn't help him and it overtook
him."
Burgos was placed in numerous treatment centers, hospitals
and shelters over the past few years as state officials tried to
find programs to help him, sources familiar with his case said.
"Undoubtedly this is a real tragedy and it gives us
all an ...occasion to think about how to better help vulnerable
young people," said Gary Kleeblatt, a DCF spokesman.
In response to Burgos' death, Kleeblatt said, DCF
is sending social workers and mental health staff to Manson this
week to make sure other children are safe and to help them cope
with the suicide.
Of the 644 inmates housed at Manson on Monday, 18
were victims of abuse and neglect who were committed to DCF and
are considered wards of the state. An additional 112 boys came from
families with active abuse and neglect cases, Kleeblatt said.
Kleeblatt said DCF has been working with correction
officials in recent months to improve how incarcerated children
are served, including allowing more DCF involvement in case conferences
and discharge planning.
But Milstein and others say they are very concerned
about how the children are being treated and they question whether
they belong in an adult prison in the first place.
"I'm very concerned about this issue," Milstein said.
"There is an increase in the number of children ending up in the
adult criminal system ...," she said. "The adult criminal system
is becoming another layer of the children's mental health safety
net."
Martha Stone, executive director of the Center for
Children's Advocacy in Hartford, said she visited Manson twice in
the past two weeks and is deeply concerned about conditions there
and how the boys are being treated.
Stone said she was especially concerned about the
prison's practice of keeping pretrial youths locked in their cells
211/2 hours a day during a two-week orientation after they first
arrive.
In a letter Monday to Correction Commissioner Theresa
C. Lantz, Stone said the forced segregation may be a violation of
the youths' constitutional rights.
She urged Lantz to seek the immediate services of
a national expert to assess the adolescents' needs with the intent
of finding more appropriate conditions and programs for them.
Correction department spokesman Brian Garnett said
the agency worked with national experts last year after nine suicides
prompted Lantz to order a review of state prison policies and procedures.
As a result, state prisons now use orientation units
to reduce the opportunity for self-harm, Garnett said. When a person
first comes into the prison system, he is subject to 15-minute checks
by guards and is made to wear slip-on sneakers instead of sneakers
with laces, he said.
"We do as much as humanly possible to protect these
individuals from themselves," Garnett said.
Garnett said Burgos was not under a suicide watch
Sunday.
During an unrelated bill-signing Monday in Hartford,
Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who spoke to Lantz Sunday night, expressed distress
over Burgos' death. Responding to questions from the media, Rell
said she was told that Burgos was on a 15-minute watch and took
his life during one of the 15-minute intermissions. She said Lantz
assured her that all protocols had been followed.
"It is just absolutely unfortunate," Rell said.
Burgos' death is refocusing attention on Connecticut's
juvenile laws.
Connecticut is one of three states that treat youths
as young as 16 as adults in their court system. The others are New
York and North Carolina.
A measure to increase the age limit for juvenile offenders
from 16 to 18 failed in the state legislature this year, as have
similar measures before. The main problem, opponents say, is cost.
Officials say it would be hugely expensive - tens of millions of
dollars - to expand the juvenile court system to handle the extra
caseload.
But advocates say the juvenile court system - with
its focus on personal responsibility and rehabilitation rather than
punishment - is more suitable for children and youths up to age
18 because of their different developmental and mental health needs.
"How many more kids have to die before we say we can't
do this to children?" asked Sheila Amdur, a longtime mental health
advocate and past president of the Connecticut chapter of the National
Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
Courant Staff Writer Christopher Keating contributed
to this story.
Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant.
|
