Jane Doe

Tomorrow there will be a rally and march at 11AM, the march will begin at the DCF offices at 505 Hudson St. and march up to the capitol three blocks away.

Over a month ago a 16 year old girl was placed in isolation at the women’s prison in Niantic without being charged or convicted of any crimes; she is a troubled young girl who doesn’t belong in an adult jail. From what I heard, she was being harassed from the other residents; in addition she was also sexually assaulted by other residents and by the staff members. As one person said, "what do you expect from her?"

DCF has not provided a safe environment for her and they are trying to pass the buck. Unfortunately she is not alone; there are many other LGBT children in DCF custody that face the environment that Jane Doe faced.

Harvey Fierstein wrote in the New York Times that,

LAST month a 16-year-old child was placed in solitary confinement at the York Correctional Institution for Women in Niantic, Conn. She has never been charged, tried or convicted. What is her crime? That she has survived.

With her father incarcerated and her mother addicted to heroin, crack cocaine and alcohol, the girl — who is referred to simply as Jane Doe, to protect her identity as a minor — had been passed among family members since she was 5 years old. They repeatedly raped, tortured and even prostituted her.

At last rescued by Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families, she was placed in a foster care facility, where she was raped by a fellow resident and forced to have sex with a staff member. When she fought back, she was punished. When caught involuntarily performing sex acts, she was punished. Jane was then placed at a residential facility in Massachusetts, but the sexual assaults continued at the hand of a worker entrusted with her care.

If you read the Memorandum of Decision from the court you would think that she is a monster because nowhere in the decision does it mention what happened to her while in DCF custody. Nowhere was there any mention about being harassed and assaulted by the other residents. Nowhere was there any mention of being raped by the staff.

Tell me, what would you do after being raped, beaten up, and punished for defending yourself? Would you fight back?

Come join us tomorrow at the rally and march.

Update 3:20PM

Mother Jone just had a article about Jane Doe, in it they about her attack on the Massachusetts staff,

Here is how Jane Doe ended up in prison. On January 28, while living at a juvenile facility in Massachusetts—where she was serving a sentence for assault—she allegedly attacked a staff member, biting her, pulling her hair, and kicking her in the head. This kind of behavior wasn't new for Doe. The director of the Connecticut Juvenile Training School, a correctional facility for boys, later testified in court that, since Doe was nine, police have been called 11 times while she was in state facilities. He said she sometimes smeared feces on herself. Another supervisor claimed Doe regularly "exhibited assaultive behaviors," targeting female staff and other juveniles.

According to Doe's lawyer, Aaron Romano, the most recent incident was sparked when a male staffer at the Massachusetts facility put Doe in a bear hug restraint from behind. "This is a girl who has been sexually abused," Romano says. "She is inclined to interpret actions with that view." DCF declined to comment on the incident, but the female staff member Doe allegedly attacked did not press charges. The male staffer has since been dismissed.
[...]
Abby Anderson, executive director of the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance, says Doe's incarceration is the result of a broken system of juvenile care. "We don't have a good sense of where our system has its strengths and weaknesses," she says. One problem, she says, is a lack of adequate mental-health care: Government data shows that 52 percent of girls in DCF custody or on parole have trauma disorders, and 89 percent had more than one diagnosed psychological disorder. Anderson says the state also doesn't have enough mechanisms for detecting and preventing sexual abuse. "We need to make sure this system is shored up so this never happens again…If you have a 16-year-old, you need to make her feel safe and put her in a place where she can trust people."