Adrian Kulesza

Despite a downward trend of juvenile crime statewide and nationally over the past two decades, there has been a spike of juvenile offenses, especially motor vehicle theft, since the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials hope to reverse the trend through a state bill changing juvenile detention procedures and increasing local outreach to at-risk youth.  

The Connecticut Judiciary Committee passed the Juvenile Crime Bill in October, which aims to decrease juvenile criminal activity throughout the state without increasing juvenile incarceration rates. In addition to adjustments to juvenile detention procedures, the New Haven Police Department, their community collaborators and the district attorney’s office have implemented preventative efforts to educate young people and dissuade them from criminal activities.

Michael Jefferson, a New Haven-based activist and attorney whose specialties include juvenile law, explained that these adjustments modified detention procedures by giving police and courts additional power to hold a child in detention while also protecting the child’s constitutional rights. 

“You know, innocence before being guilty still means something in this country,” Jefferson said. “You have to safeguard the constitutional rights of a child and the confidentiality aspect of the arrest because this juvenile allegedly committed a crime. The other piece is balancing the fact that a crime may have been committed. They tried to marry the two by taking both things into consideration.” 

Breaking down Juvenile Crime Bill HB-5417

The new bill is broken down into 21 sections. Some amend previous juvenile crime bills to reform judicial processes, while others deal with the publicization of juvenile criminal records.

Certain sections make changes to juvenile arrest procedures. According to the new bill, when a juvenile is arrested, they are now required to be brought before a judge within five days of the arrest and can no longer be held in underage detention facilities. The court can also electronically monitor the child if they’ve been charged with motor or property theft, which is the most common juvenile crime in New Haven. 

The bill also expands existing laws on serious sexual offenses by juveniles to cover certain homicide and firearm crimes. Part of the expansion includes allowing them to be charged as juveniles for longer.

Juvenile motor vehicle theft has peaked since 2020, according to both Jefferson and NHPD Assistant Chief David Zannelli. Consequently, procedures based on charges for this crime have been altered. The bill states that, instead of increasing with the value of the vehicle stolen, the charges will now increase based on the number of times the juvenile has been charged for theft before. Repeat offenders will be charged more severely than first-time offenders will.

In judicial processes, the bill alters the roles of attorneys, law enforcement officials and judges when trying juveniles. All three individuals must now attach official court detention documents when requesting detention orders for a juvenile. Judges who negate detention orders must explain their reasoning. The bill also requires the Chief State’s Attorney to develop and implement a training program for prosecutors and peace officers that orients them on the juvenile detention process. 

Zannelli said that there has been a marked change in juvenile arrest protocols over the past decades compared to when he first started.

How is this affecting New Haven?

Amid the bill’s efforts to improve policies regarding youth crime, the New Haven Police Department and community efforts have focused on preventative efforts to reduce the number of youth at risk of committing crimes. 

Various community organizations have launched programs to engage with juveniles — through occupying their time, offering mentorship or providing an open line of communication — that have contributed to the decrease in youth crime that the state legislation works toward. 

“I think that’s the difference here than some other law enforcement agencies where they might just say, well, that’s not our role. They commit a crime, we lock them up,” said Zannelli. “And yes, if they commit a crime here — a murder, rape, robbery — we’re gonna make an arrest, of course. But if we could prevent it, a preventative approach is the best approach.” 

Youth Connect, a joint effort between the city, the Board of Education and community partners, uses mentorship programs to get in contact with at-risk youth and divert them from criminal behavior. These mentorships, which consist of meetings between a juvenile and a mentor various times per week, serve as a way to promote expression and open communication

Youth Connect also takes referrals from schools, families and community organizations in order to pair outreach workers with the juveniles who need their help. Depending on the age and risk level of the juvenile, they are sorted into one of three tiers. These tiers dictate the amount of times a week they meet with their outreach worker, who their outreach worker is and what issues they work on together. The outreach worker and juvenile communicate with each other to create holistic plans that suit the individual and tackle their specific needs.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this problem,” said Ronald Huggins, manager of the Youth Services Bureau under the Youth and Recreation Department of New Haven. “Having a network of support helps to limit the opportunities that people have to engage in crime. We don’t want young people to have [criminal] records, nobody does.”

Zannelli also emphasized the NHPD’s role in launching preventative projects to combat juvenile criminality. Efforts include partnerships with public schools, a jiu jitsu program for New Haven kids taught by NHPD officers and partnerships with social service groups such as the Yale Child Studies Program or Youth Connect to offer services to youth who have been exposed to trauma. 

Sean Hardy, teacher at the Maura Sheridan School, elaborated on the content of these presentations. According to Hardy, the NHPD’s outreach program targets children from kindergarten through fourth grade. The majority of the conversations’ content aims at developing general value systems, such as kindness and trust, instead of directly addressing juvenile crime or substance abuse. 

“They’ve been awesome,” attested Hardy. “They’ve been at my school for years. They were with my school this past fall and are coming to give a couple of weeks of Black History Month.”

Despite all of these efforts, there is still much to be done to reduce and prevent youth crime in New Haven. Huggins mentioned increasing state funding to complement the funds being invested by the city of New Haven as well as funding from community organizations.

“I think, from a municipal standpoint, a lot of great investments have been made, as it pertains to our young people,” added Huggins. “Myself being born and raised in the city, I can honestly see over the last 10 years versus specifically, the last five years, how our city has taken a lead to work with our young people. I believe that if those efforts were aided by more funds, we could further assist juvenile crime attention and reduction. We’ve knocked the ball off the park, but I think if we want to take it up a notch, an increase of funding to increase capacity and support would be ideal.”

The juvenile crime bill HB-5417 was passed in the Connecticut State House on Apr. 28 and given final approval in the Connecticut State Senate on May 4.

Correction 2/20: A previous version of this article incorrectly quoted Zanelli to say that 16 years olds were “placed in prison for convenience” when he in fact said they were placed in a “prison conveyance van.” The article has been updated to reflect this.