After watching many attempts to salvage Connecticut’s failing $57 million juvenile prison for boys, Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she is closing the aid she is shutting down the 4-year-old state Juvenile Training School at Middletown and replacing it with two smaller regional facilities for boys and one for girls, the Hartford Courant reports. there were 89 boys in the school yesterday.
If the legislature backs Rell’s plan, one of the largest projects of Gov. John Rowland’s scandal-plagued administration will close down and Connecticut’s ailing juvenile justice system will get a fresh start. Rell is seeking to close the school by 2008. She suggested it could be used as a headquarters for the state Department of Emergency and Homeland Security or as space for the state police training academy and some Department of Public Safety offices. The new centers are expected to cost about $21.7 million annually to operate compared with the $33 million cost of the training school. Rell hopes to use some of the savings to expand community-based services.