Community advocates call for stricter punishments for teen offenders

Ahead of the start of the legislative session, community advocates in Hartford are calling for stricter laws when it comes to teen offenders.

Outside of a McDonald’s on Albany Avenue Tuesday morning, the head of the nonprofit Angels of Edgewood was joined by others in the community and a victim of car theft, to get lawmakers’ attention.

“It’s time for lawmakers to enact stricter laws and ensure that juveniles are held accountable for their actions,” Jendayi Scott-Miller, founder of Angel of Edgewood, said.

She said she awoke to broken glass and a car alarm last month.

“I looked out of my window to see a group of teens breaking into my neighbor’s vehicle,” she said.

Around the same time, Zina Brathwaite had her vehicle stolen from the outside of her home. It was later found crashed into a home in Wethersfield.

Police said a group of teens stole it, and one died of his injuries.

“I feel sorry for the kids that got hurt and the one that died… I feel so sorry for their parents, but please. You people you have to be able to monitor your kids. That is your responsibility,” Brathwaite said.

Currently, teens who commit crimes don’t have those charges follow them into adulthood.

“It’s about all the juvenile crime that continuously happens where juveniles have made committing crimes a hobby and a sport. Everyone’s child doesn’t deserve to be locked up, but there are a heck of a lot of them that do,” Scott-Miller said.

According to statewide arrest data, more than 4,400 teens were arrested in 2022. The majority of crimes were simple assault and disorderly conduct.

While calls are growing for harsher punishments, some think that’s not what’s needed.

“We used to always hear that people are a product of their environment, and we really see that today. Poverty is a number one driver of what goes on in terms of juvenile behavior,” Brother Kelvin Lovejoy from the Blue Hills Civic Association said.

Lovejoy said teens who commit crimes are a product of the trauma they’ve experienced.

“Families are not what they used to be 20, 30, 40 years ago. These families need supports, and what we find is supports are actually being reduced,” he said. “Making the laws stricter would do something, not enough.”

He said more resources are needed on the state and federal level for youth, their families and their community.

“Punitive measures is not what we need. We need therapy, we need healing. We need our young people to survive in the future. Locking them away…Connecticut has already shown that this doesn’t work,” he said. “We need involvement of adults, caring adults.”