About 50 supporters of a 16-year-old transgender girl currently housed in a state prison protested outside Department of Children and Families headquarters Friday, calling on state officials to move the teenager in to a more suitable treatment program.

Protesters made it clear that they hold DCF Commissioner Joette Katz responsible for the plight of the teenager known as Jane Doe, chanting "Katz you lied to me, prison isn't therapy."

The protest came as talks continued toward getting the 16-year-old out of York Correctional.

"There continues to be a dialogue that is moving forward. I'm encouraged that we will find a resolution. It's important that one be found quickly," said state Child Advocate Sarah Eagan.

Settlement talks began a week ago. The youth has been at the York Correctional Institute for woman in Niantic since April 8. DCF invoked a rarely used law permitting the transfer of a juvenile to adult prison if the department proves it can't care for the youth anywhere in the juvenile system – an assertion hotly contested by advocates in this case.

"This week, a meeting was held between the Department of Children and Families, the Office of the Child Advocate and Jane Doe's attorneys to discuss how to ensure that everything possible is done to provide appropriate treatment, education and social opportunities for Jane in her current living situation and her potential future placement and treatment," Eagan, Katz, and attorneys James Connolly and Aaron Romano said in a prepared joint statement. "This meeting was what hopefully will be the first of many such meetings as all parties work towards a positive resolution."

The youth's lawyers are appealing the transfer, approved by a state judge, and incarceration in federal court on constitutional grounds. Katz has publicly defended the move, citing the youth's history of assaults in residential centers.

One protester, Diana Lombardi of the Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition, said that putting the teenager in prison is just "not right."

"She needs to be with her peers and get a high school education and to learn how to live in society," Lombardi said, adding that as a transgender girl, Jane Doe's path will be even more difficult because of the discrimination and bullying.

Sandra Staub, legal director of the Connecticut chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said officials are worried about the precedent set by placing someone who hasn't been convicted or accused of a crime in prison.

"She is not charged with a crime and yet the place she is being housed is for people charged or convicted of crimes," Staub said. "That is not the right place for a child, and Jane Doe is a child."

The youth committed a serious assault on a staff member in a Massachusetts facility on Jan. 27 after another staff member attempted to restrain her from walking off campus. The injured staff member was bitten, punched and kicked multiple times, according to an incident report obtained by The Courant.

One of the staff members was fired after an internal investigation of the restraint attempt, said Connolly, an assistant public defender and one of the youth's lawyers. The youth was arrested, but the criminal charge was not pursued by prosecutors in Massachusetts.

The youth was under DCF care as a young child, and then returned to the agency's custody about five years ago after living with relatives. She suffered extreme physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at the hands of relatives and others --- an experience her lawyers and advocates have described as horrific.

DCF has released some of her behavioral history, indicating she stabbed a female with a fork and committed 10 assaults in a concentrated period of time.

Lawyers and advocates said her record also reveals periods of a year or more where she wasn't assaultive and was making progress in therapy.

The transgender girl was committed to DCF's juvenile-justice division as a delinquent for the first time in November 2013 for an assault of a staff member at the Bridgeport detention center and for an escape. The 18-month juvenile-justice commitment will last for about another 13 months. Romano has asked a federal judge to reverse the transfer, but he and Connolly have said that it is conceivable that the youth could spend the rest of the commitment, or longer, in an adult prison.

The youth, in an affidavit filed in federal court on April 12, said she is spending 22-23 hours a day in a cell at the York prison and is not receiving schooling.

Assistant child advocates on Eagan's staff have been to the prison and have interviewed the youth and Department of Correction officials.

"I do think the DOC is working as hard they can to put together as developmentally appropriate plan as they can," Eagan has said. "However, the fact remains that an adult prison is not a treatment facility and this child, above all else, needs intense treatment."

The youth requires "a carefully constructed, individualized, trauma-informed treatment plan that wraps services around her, and addresses safety concerns," Eagan said.