Op - Ed Opposing Incarceration of Abused Youth

YLC staff attorney Sue Burrell, wrote an op ed piece for the CT Mirror, Incarcerating Disturbed Youth is a Flawed Response (LINK to uploaded article), published September 22, 2014.   The piece follows Connecticut’s decisions to lock a transgender teenager, first in an adult women’s facility in Connecticut, and then in a boys’ institution.  The piece discusses the important of preventing cross-over into the juvenile justice system of youth whose problems, like Jane Doe’s, stem from chronic abuse and mental health issues.  It points to the negative impact of incarceration on these youth, urges the importance of developing individualized non-institutional services to meet their needs, and offers several resources to assist in that goal.

op-ed