Connecticut Child Advocate criticizes DCF treatment of transgender teen ‘Jane Doe’ ‘Jane Doe’ suffered ‘public shaming,’ report says

HARTFORD >> The state Office of Child Advocate criticized state child welfare officials Wednesday for their handling of a transgender girl held at a Connecticut detention center for boys on accusations she fought with other girls at a psychiatric center.

Child Advocate Sarah Eagan’s office called the July 13 announcement by the Department of Children and Families about the fight the previous day involving the 16-year-old, identified as Jane Doe, and four other girls a “public shaming.”

“The public shaming of Jane Doe a victim of significant abuse and neglect is also inexplicable in light of the fact that the July 12 incident involved four girls, all of whom were restrained, all of whom were described in DCF records as hitting each other and staff,” the child advocate’s office said in a news release.

One of the girls was restrained on five occasions during the same night and was placed in handcuffs and other restraints “long after” the incident ended, the advocate’s office said. No transfers were announced for any of the other girls involved in the incident, it said.

“DCF’s rush to publicize a fraction of an incident is difficult to reconcile with its parental role,” the advocate’s office said. It said DCF may have a conflict of interest as guardian for the girl and as a systems manager for juvenile services.

In an email response to the criticism, DCF denied any conflict, “actual or apparent.” The agency said its decision to release a statement when the girl was moved to the boys’ detention center “was driven by the extensive news coverage she has received over the past several months.”

The agency said the July 12 incident is being investigated. According to a preliminary review, the teen ripped the sprinkler head from a unit, causing flooding and extensive damage, officials said. DCF said that was when it decided to remove her from the premises.

“The girls in the program deserve to be safe and to receive quality therapeutic treatment and education that meet their needs,” DCF said in a statement. “Our staff are committed to providing those services, and the administration is committed to providing the resources and quality improvement structure and process to support it.”

The teenager, who was born a male and identifies as a female, was initially kept at an adult prison after DCF said she was involved in other assaults at a private treatment center and a judicial branch detention center.

The child advocate’s office said the teen’s life has been marked by years of institutional or hospital care, “moving between facilities, the state psychiatric hospital for children, local emergency departments, juvenile detention and out-of-state programs.” It said she moved at least 12 times in the last four years.

In the last seven months, she has switched therapists at least five times, the agency said.

The girl was recently transferred from the DCF-run Connecticut Juvenile Training School’s unit for girls to a facility for boys, where she is being kept in isolation. Jane Doe was previously held in isolation at the state’s women’s prison in Niantic. She was sent there after being accused of assault.

Jane Doe was moved from Niantic following an outcry from her lawyer and civil rights activists.

Abby Anderson, executive director of the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance, said programs helping children will have to be more transparent.

“It’s been disturbing since the beginning,” Anderson said of the Jane Doe case. “She hasn’t been treated fairly.”

The child advocate’s office called attention to the fact that the Jane Doe case is not an anomaly in the DCF system.

“Records also reveal over 200 incidents in the last 13 weeks where staff at the boys’ or girls’ units reported using physical or mechanical restraint, including handcuffs, to control youth within the facility,” the child advocate’s office said, adding, “The fact that many youth move through residential and correctional facilities without being ‘better’ is not a sign of their incorrigibility. Rather, it is consistent with the evidence that long-term institutional care, particularly without consistent support from a nurturing family or caregiver, does not work.”

Sandra Staub, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, said in a prepared statement that, “The Office of the Child Advocate has demolished the fiction that Jane Doe is uniquely dangerous or violent and has uncovered facts proving she has been a victim of discrimination by her guardian, the Connecticut Department of Children and Families.”

Staub said the ACLU “will continue to support the efforts of Jane’s lawyers in court to protect her from DCF, which has proven that it can’t be trusted to act in her best interest.”

Read the full statement from the Child Advocate here.

Register reporter Keldy Ortiz contributed to this story.