“The only girls that should ever be there are the ones at risk to public safety,” said Abby Anderson, the leader of the state’s Juvenile Justice Alliance. She observed that many of these children are foster children....
"...To say ‘I have to lock a child in one room to get them to stay in one place long enough to accept treatment,’ that’s not in line with evidence-based [treatment]. That’s not in line with best practice.”...
"Connolly, with the public defenders office, said the state has not done any research during his 12-year tenure to determine if locked facilities lead to better outcomes, including lower recidivism rates or fewer instances of girls running away when they leave the locked facility.
“We really don’t know how effective these programs have been historically,” he said.
"The state has been without a state-run secure girls’ detention facility since 2003, when Long Lane was closed after the suicide of an inmate there and the documentation of severe problems by the state’s attorney general and child advocate at the time.
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