Connecticut

Training:

Provided a regional training for probation and parole representatives, victim advocates, treatment providers, and representatives from law enforcement and the departments of mental health, social services, and family services in Mashantucket (Ledyard) at the New England Council of Crime and Delinquency's (NECCD) Annual Training Institute, October 2000 (50 participants).

Resource Site:

In New Haven, there exists a unique collaboration between the Office of Adult Probation, the sex offender treatment provider, and a victim advocate. The victim advocate, hired with Probation Department funds, serves as part of the sex offender supervision team. This effort builds on a collaborative model developed in another area of the state, and takes advantage of a previously established partnership among probation, police, treatment, and victim services concerning issues of community notification and officer safety. A researcher is documenting the outcomes of the efforts in both parts of the state.

OJP Grant Sites:

2001: The State of Connecticut utilized a grant to support a juvenile sex offender management initiative in Willimantic, Connecticut. Willimantic is a small, low-income city surrounded by largely rural townships. The 2001 population of Willimantic was 22,857. The goals of the grant were to strengthen existing multi-agency collaborative efforts in an effort to better supervise, manage, and treat juvenile sex offenders; to standardize juvenile sex offender evaluations; and to establish local, community-based juvenile sex offender treatment services. The project also strengthened partnerships between the court and family service and child protection agencies, and worked toward implementing the recommendations of a long-standing policy advisory committee that has been developing comprehensive policies for the management of juvenile sex offenders in the community.

1999: The State of Connecticut utilized an implementation/enhancement grant to augment its New London Intensive Sex Offender Unit. The New London unit, located within the Court Support Services Division of the Judicial Branch, was established in 1995, and was the first specialized sex offender probation unit of its kind in Connecticut. Three years later, the New Haven Intensive Sex Offender Unit was created and is now a nationally recognized CSOM Resource Site. The New London unit supervises approximately 125 offenders. Grant funds were used to hire a victim advocate and relapse prevention officer to join specially trained probation officers in the supervision of sex offenders, and to provide outreach services to victims. Funds were also used to coordinate, enhance, and continue the evaluation of the Intensive Sex Offender Units at both sites.