An internal investigation completed just before the Department of Children and Families decided to close the state’s troubled Long Lane School for girls exposed deplorable conditions, The Hartford Courant reported Saturday.

The conditions described were worse than those contained in a recent report from the state’s attorney general and child advocate. Twenty-five girls live at the school, which the report stated did not meet some of DCF’s basic standards.

The internal report says investigators found a dirty, understaffed facility with small rooms, worn concrete floors, graffiti-covered walls and cracked windows. Some children sleep on hard and sagging mattresses covered with torn sheets, The Courant reported.

Bathrooms are also in poor repair and unclean, the report indicated. Shower floors were covered in soap scum and moldy, wet clothes were found in washing machines.

DCF announced last week it would close the school just months after implementing nearly two dozen changes. The agency had previously said it planned to close Long Lane by the end of 2003, but now will shut the doors by February.

–Associated Press