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"I think we are all interested in really finding what is the best way of doing the service for kids and families. And I don't think any of us know what the format would look like at this point," she said.-- DCF Commissioner Denise Dunbar

Translation: "I think we like the taxpayers to think we are all interested in knowing what we are supposed to be doing, but that never stopped us before, so we don't know what all the fuss is about."

http://www.courant.com/news/local/statewire/hc-06013046.apds.m0742.bc-ct--dcf-jan06,0,558531.story

Plans would separate juvenile justice programs from DCF

Associated Press

January 6 2006

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Both Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr. on Thursday suggested splitting off the state's juvenile offender system from the Department of Children and Families.

The move comes amid problems at some DCF facilities, including allegations of physical and verbal abuse at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown.

"We can and must do a better job," Williams said, "not only in providing for those children, but of restructuring the Department of Children and Families so that we can be sure to deliver better services and care in the future.

"For too long we have seen reorganization plans tinker at the edges of what the mission of this agency is. It's time now to have a completely different approach," he said.

Williams, D-Brooklyn, presented several options to a bipartisan legislative working group created to come up with a plan to reform DCF. The group, which met for the first time on Thursday, hopes to come up with recommendations for reforms in the next legislative session, which begins next month.

Two scenarios would require DCF to focus only on child protective and family services, including abuse and neglect investigations. Other agencies, including the Judicial Department, would take care of the other duties. One proposal would keep DCF as is, but require the agency to go through an accreditation process and commit to significant restructuring.

Rell asked the working group to consider splitting off DCF's programs for juvenile offenders into a separate agency.

"To put it simply, serving juvenile offenders may require a special focused effort," Rell said in a written statement. "Even without juvenile justice services as part of its mission, DCF would have a Herculean set of tasks."

Darlene Dunbar, the DCF commissioner, said the idea of splitting off the juvenile justice programs is still in the beginning stages.

"I think we are all interested in really finding what is the best way of doing the service for kids and families. And I don't think any of us know what the format would look like at this point," she said.

DCF currently employs 3,500 workers. It is responsible for child protective services, foster care and adoption, mental health services, substance abuse prevention and treatment for children, contracts with various family service agencies and operation of four facilities, including the Middletown training school.

Williams said the agency, with an $800 million annual budget, has about 3,000 children in its care and custody.

"It is becoming increasingly evident that, in its present configuration, DCF is struggling to meet its goals of serving and protecting children in Connecticut," Rell wrote in a letter to the working legislative working group.