New Haven Independent

She and other criminal justice reform advocates are questioning the policy, an outgrowth of a law passed in response to Cheshire’s Petit family triple murder

The criminal justice reform law passed at the General Assembly’s Jan. 22 special session enabled the board to access juvenile records when determining an inmate’s eligibility for parole. Protecting the confidentiality of those records was one of the hotly debated issues during that session, which was held in response to the Petit murders in July. One of the two men charged with that murder, 26-year-old Joshua Komisarjevsky, had a long juvenile criminal record that was not made available to the parole board before it granted him parole.

Robert Farr, chairman of the Board of Pardons and Parole, said in an interview that he believes his agency always had the legal right to see those records, but the Judicial Department “never set up a system for us to get access to them.” He said reviewing the files of anyone up to age 25 coming up for parole is done for the dual purpose of risk assessment (determining the risk the inmate would pose to the community if released) and providing programming for which the young offender could be eligible, such as substance abuse treatment or anger management classes. When an inmate turns 25, the juvenile records are destroyed — but, confusingly, not the information on those treated as youthful offenders. (More on that below.)

Farr said certain crimes that might appear in a juvenile record, such as cruelty to animals, arson, or sex offenses, send up red flags when considering an adult inmate for parole. He also emphasized that access to juvenile criminal records is for internal use only — the records could not be accessed by a potential employer, for example.

Nikki Brown (pictured at the top of this story), youth director of Salvation & Deliverance Church on Thompson Street, introduces herself as “Sister Nikki B” at the many rallies she’s addressed recently criticizing what she calls the criminal justice system’s failings. She sent out an email alert recently regarding a report she received from inmates at the J.B. Gates prison in Niantic that 90 of them “were forced to sign a paper re-opening their closed juvenile record [in order] to be considered for parole.” She said she doesn’t know if they’re all under 25 or not. (If they’re older, the record would no longer exist.) She’s opposed to anyone having access to the records; she notes this latest “clarification” came about because of the Cheshire murders.

“If this young man [Komisarjevsky] had not had a juvenile record they would never have done this. How many other people under 25 with juvenile records murdered someone in our [African American] community, and they did nothing about that? Are other lives not worthy enough to instate this action?”

She said she’s opposed to it not just because she sees its origin stemming from racial inequity. She also doesn’t think anyone’s juvenile record should be available. “What they did as a child shouldn’t be accessed,” she says. “This is not going to be used to say, ‘OK, where did we fail this child?’ It’s going to be, ‘OK, they did this before.’ It’s just going to be used against them.”

Children often plead guilty, Brown noted, “because they think no one will be able to access this information. No one says in juvenile court, ‘This information will be accessed until you’re 25 years old.’ Most people don’t even know that. Unfortunately, the juvenile system doesn’t adequately support children that are released or who have been in trouble. There’s not enough resources for them.”

On that point, Farr doesn’t disagree. “There are never enough programs in the sense that we’d always love to have more programs. Our challenge is to try to allocate the programs that exist in a way that we can make the most impact on the inmate population, so we have to prioritize.”

In his view, adult inmates are not being punished for what they did as juveniles, but for what they did as adults that landed them in prison on felony convictions.

The state passed a law ast year that raises the age from 16 to 18 at which an offender is treated as an adult; however, it does not go into effect until 2010. Right now more than 10,000 16- and 17-year-olds are tried as adults in the state, according to the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance.

New Haven State Rep. Toni Walker, who fought hard for the “Raise the Age” law, also wants to make sure that consulting the juvenile records of young adults coming up for parole would help them get the services they need.

“Everyone has this fear of ex-offenders coming into their communities; the suburbs don’t want them and the cities don’t want them. The dilemma the state has is how do we get the services to ex-offenders so they can assimilate into the community in a positive way? It’s the whole state that must take responsibility.”

Walker was concerned that the Department of Correction would end up doing “a blanket sign for everybody, and we need to have a conversation with them about that. It’s got to be a lot more descriptive in terms of what we are planning to do with the juvenile records.” She said asking those over 25 to sign the waiver (which is unnecessary since juvenile records are destroyed when an inmate turns 25) could “delay the process of sending people up for parole. We need to define what’s really necessary.”

DOC spokesman Brian Garnett said the department’s policy is “to ask offenders under the age of 25 to sign that release so the Board of Pardons and Parole has as much information as possible before they make a parole decision.” He couldn’t say for sure whether all inmates, regardless of age, have been asked to sign the waiver. He added that youthful offender information is not disposed of; the DOC, the parole board and the Judicial Branch are working together to see how they might proceed.

“Under Connecticut law,” Garnett said, “youthful offender status is not juvenile status. It means if you’re 16 or 17 years old and you commit a crime you get one more bite of the apple if the judge agrees and you revert back to juvenile status. Youthful offender status is not erased.”

Sign Up for Email AlertsEmail This Story

Your Email:

Recipient's Email:
Your Email:
Message (optional):

Your Name:
Your Email:
Message: