Four high school students from Youth Rights Media (YRM), a teenage rights group in New Haven, held a screening of a documentary they directed called “CJT$: At What Cost?,” a 25-minute film that challenges the efficacy of the Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS) in Middletown.
The directors, Karl Greg, Jr., Matt Mitchell, Trenna Burney and Ashley Burney, held the screening of their documentary at Shanklin 107 on Tuesday evening in an effort to increase awareness of the presence of CJTS and also to help build a foundation of supporters for their film and its message.
The directors argued that CJTS should be closed because it does not rehabilitate the youth that pass through its facility. One of the main arguments made by the film was that CJTS was designed after a high-security prison and is not suitable to teenage and pre-teen boys who have committed minor offensives.
In an introduction to the film, Treena Burney said that her research showed that 75 percent of the detained boys at CJTS have committed non-violent offenses.
YRM has screened its film in theaters in New Haven and Stratford, as well as in New York and Massachusetts. The Hartford Courant has also written about the film.
“Our main goal is to get [CJTS] shut down,” Greg said, who added that YRM wants to get Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell to watch the film.
The documentary is a close examination of the facility of CJTS with interviews with the administrators from CJTS as well as the Governor’s office.
Jeanne Milstein, the state’s Child Advocate with the Governor’s office, appeared in the film and spoke sympathetically for the boys at CJTS. According to Milstein, the mission of CJTS is to instruct the boys so that they can leave as productive citizens.
“The mission [of CJTS] has not been achieved and I have very serious concerns,” Milstein said.
Dr. Brett Rayford, the Director of CJTS, also appeared in the documentary, leading the directors who appeared in the film on a walking tour of the some of the CJTS facility.
“There is a visual effect when you walk in. All the boys that come here are acutely aware that they are not home,” Rayford said.
According to Rayford, the kids are expected to learn how to cooperate in an environment alien to them.
Travis, who previously spent a year in CJTS, disagrees with that assessment. A member of YRM, he said in the film that kids that come through CJTS do no threaten public safety, but yet are being held “captive.”
The film ended rather starkly with silent footage of 2 detained boys experiencing violence and physical force from CJTS guards.
“Those last clips were the hardest to watch,” said Patrice Webster ’08. “Even with no sound each picture was daunting to watch, and to imagine that kids as young as 12 might experience something like that.”
As an alternative for CJTS, the film’s directors suggest home monitors and social workers to supervise the teenage boys’ behavior, allowing them to remain in their home and school environment.
For the Wesleyan community, YRM said that students could get involved in their cause through letter campaigns to state legislators.
“A lot of people say they learn from us, and that makes us feel good,” Burney said. “We never expected this film to be as big a deal as it has become. Our love for what we did grew as the community’s interest in the film grew.”
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