Report: DCF Mulling Middletown Reformatory for Girls

Middletown could soon be home to a detention facility for girls who have been charged with a crime if plans by Joette Katz, commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, come to fruition, according to the Connecticut Mirror.

Lawyers and child advocates take issue with the idea, fearing that the harsh criminal justice system placing girls in a locked facility doesn't deter crime or encourage them to walk the straight and narrow, according to the Mirror.

For more than 150 years, Long Lane in Middletown was the site of Long Lane School, which started out as a "farm for adolescent girls who committed crimes or could not live at home because of delinquent activity or pregnancy," according to the General Assembly's website. 

In 1973, boys were incarcerated at Long Lane and after many years of debate and Wesleyan's intention to purchase the property adjacent to its campus, the General Assembly voted in 1999 to establish a 240-bed secure Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown, according to the General Assembly's website. 

"Caring for a child is a wonderful experience. But it is also a very complicated responsibility — one that requires a wealth of information to help guide the decisions and the actions that best serve the child. While none of us can do it alone, we all can do better if we have relevant and reliable information," Katz says on the DCF website.