COURANT: DCF terrorizing and assaulting children (again)

[Mort Zuckerman]

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Subject: COURANT: DCF terrorizing and assaulting children (again)

Date: Oct 18, 2008 8:25 AM

http://www.actionlyme.org/RAGAGLIA_GRANDJURY_DETAILS.htm
http://www.actionlyme.org/index.htm
http://www.actionlyme.org/andersonpenisbiter.htm

As you can see (from who is copied in here), the USDOJ never
starts a criminal investigation, despite years and years
of direct complaints to them about the criminal behavior
of duh DCF evil hoes.

How about this?
5 of the stupid DCF hoes caught sleeping and peeing in the State
Parks:
http://www.actionlyme.org/080924.htm
On video, on YouTube.

Peek-a-Booo!

Kathleen M. Dickson

==================================

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-dcfstonington1018.artoct18,0,2072169.story

Center's Troubled Teens 'Assaulted With Needles,' Officials Say

By JON LENDER | The Hartford Courant
October 18, 2008

Teens being treated for drug abuse and mental illness at Stonington
Institute have
been involuntarily injected with medication to restrain them in what
the state attorney
general and child advocate Friday called another example of poor
supervision by
the Department of Children and Families.

At least five boys aged about 16 received such involuntary injections,
while aides
held them immobile, at the DCF-licensed private residential facility
in North Stonington
during a two-month period this past spring, state Child Advocate
Jeanne Milstein
said Friday after she and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal sent a
letter filled
with criticism to DCF.

Milstein said the youths were considered "out of control" at the time
that they were injected.

If DCF had been properly overseeing what goes on at Stonington, "the
practice
of involuntary intramuscular medication would have been discovered
sooner and fewer
children assaulted with needles," Milstein and Blumenthal wrote to DCF
Commissioner
Susan Hamilton.

The practice of involuntary injections has been halted, and no lasting
harm to the
youths was reported, but "once again we see evidence of DCF's
inability
to demand and oversee the delivery of effective, safe services for
children,"
Milstein and Blumenthal wrote.

Stonington Institute executives could not be reached late Friday.

However, a spokesman for DCF, Gary Kleeblatt, said the agency handled
the situation
promptly and effectively.

"DCF quality improvement staff discovered the use of the involuntary
administration
of medication, and our medical staff responded by going to Stonington
to instruct
them to immediately discontinue this practice, which involved a few
instances,"
Kleeblatt said.

"We also called in the executive director of Stonington's corporate
parent,
as well as Stonington's chief executive officer, to emphasize that
this was
unacceptable and to get assurance that the policy would be changed.
The practice
is no longer being used, and the psychiatrist who was involved in the
involuntary
administration is no longer employed at Stonington."

Friday's criticism of DCF by Blumenthal and Milstein came almost on
the eve
of Monday's planned investigative hearing by two legislative
committees into
DCF operations.

Angry legislators decided to hold Monday's hearing after a summer of
news stories
about problems, including the death of an infant who was a foster
child under a
DCF worker's care and rising costs and the use of potentially
dangerous restraints
at the DCF-run Riverview psychiatric hospital for children in
Middletown.

Friday's letter represented preliminary findings from an ongoing
investigation
by Milstein and Blumenthal into operations at Stonington Institute,
which has come
under state scrutiny for problems in past years.

In 2006, DCF officials stopped sending children to the treatment
center for teenage
boys and girls, which is run by former state Sen. William Aniskovich,
after receiving
reports of a high number of children running away from the program.

DCF resumed sending them briefly, but stopped again in 2007 because of
further problems.

The facility now houses fewer than 20 children, about half of whom
were sent there
by DCF, according to Milstein's office. Stonington Institute has been
receiving
several million dollars annually from the state.

Milstein and Blumenthal said in Friday's letter to Hamilton that their
current
inquiry into Stonington Institute is in its "preliminary stages," but
they are already "gravely concerned about the safety and care of the
children
who remain in residence there despite chronic program deficiencies
that have long
been identified by DCF. ... Our preliminary assessment shows clearly
that Stonington
Institute's programs for children are very troubled and that DCF has
known of
these severe problems for some time."

They said that "over a period of years DCF has found serious
deficiencies in
Stonington's therapeutic program, including inadequate staffing, high
staff
turnover, ... lack of training, poor communication [and] inadequate
supervision."

Earlier this month, Milstein's office delivered a highly critical
report on
DCF's supervision of the now closed, privately run Lake Grove
residential treatment
center that the DCF had licensed in Durham.

She said the failings that led DCF to remove its client children from
Lake Grove
had occurred at other DCF-supervised treatment facilities — and now
history may
be repeating itself at Stonington Institute.

DCF's Kleeblatt said the department "has required Stonington to
develop
and implement a corrective action plan to address issues related to
the treatment
program and environment, staffing and supervision. This plan is
closely monitored
by DCF from both a program and licensing perspective."

"As a result, we have seen significant improvements in the treatment
program,
including individual, group and family therapy, and staff have been
trained in both
behavior management and in the treatment program, which is a
nationally recognized
... model for substance-abusing adolescents. Stonington also has
implemented quality
improvement and staff communication protocols to ensure that staff and
supervisors
are aware of incidents and trends. We have seen that incidents are
trending down.
Finally, staff supervision has improved."

He said DCF officials "will continue our oversight and consultation,
and to
monitor and evaluate the status of the program and our plan. We share
concerns about
Stonington and are carefully monitoring the program."