YEARS OF COMMUNITY SERVICE BUT BEING RAILROADED

The comic satire being used in this video is designed to make a point. For years Cornell Lewis has served the community of Greater Hartford by walking children to school in crime infested areas, giving sandwiches to the needy for 3 years, and waging a campaign against drug dealers in Hartford's Northend. Now members of the Department of Children and Families plus Connecticut Juvenile Training School seek to brand Cornell a trouble maker for speaking the truth about bias towards employees of color.


                            

PROTECTING THEIR OWN WHILE CASTING PEOPLE OF COLOR OUT ALONE

The comments from anonymous sources about events on the DCFplantation satellite Connecticut Juvenile Training School continue to come in. There is a lot of ill will toward CJTS management about perceived double standards when discipline is doled out to staff of different ethnic backgrounds (read people of color vs whites). In the last few weeks tensions have escalated to the breaking point among Youth Services Officers due to several incidents and non handling of them. YSOs are pointing out how a certain white YSO is being protected because he does favors for management (watching and reporting on co-workers). While a white based management protects one of their own, people of color are cast off alone (no support from management only harsher discipline). To make a point several sources cited the following examples from CJTS.
* a white YSO is being protected by management even though 3 weeks or so ago he could not account for a
    resident in his care for almost an hour (i.e. the kid was lost). No investigation whatsoever.
* a YSO of color is being throughly investigated over an incident of possibly not knowing where a kid was
    for a shorter period of time than the white YSO.
*  a white YSO is being accused by people of color of promoting disharmony among staff by using language
    considered to be racist. CJTS management at the time of this posting has failed to take action because of
    what reason(s)? Last time I checked using racist language or writing letters with such was / is viewed as
    creating a hostile workplace environment.

 What I have recounted to you is but the tip of the racist iceberg seen visually. Below the horizon a much
  larger problem looms for DCFplantation management. Documents detailing a white YSOs physical assault on a resident several years ago are circulating openly on the DCFplantation. People have approached this website and asked for a story and documents to be published, describing a cover up of a white YSO abusing a resident of color and receiving a small penalty. In the future watch this website for possible details of whites protecting their own while casting people of color off alone

COMMUNITY SUPPORT ABOUT DCF BIAS

PAYING RESIDENTS ON THE PLANTATION FOR THE THREE RRRs

It has come to the attention of DCF Plantation blog concerning interesting developments at Connecticut Juvenile Training School recently. The majority of the residents are being paid [if they qualify] something called Cady Cash for things pertaining to school work. Cady is the name of the school at CJTS: on any given day you find most (not all) CJTS residents not performing well with class work; this is not the fault of hard working teachers but residents with a myriad of problems. Many of these resident issues focus on cognitive, behavioral, cultural and other factors. CJTS residents avoid learning like Dracula hides from a cross and sunlight: a bright executive decision at CJTS now says pay Cady Cash for completed homework assignments, picking up items off the floor, closing a door or being polite. Ergo, the three RRRs (reading, writing, arithmetic) falls to the wayside; teacher and resident sign a Cady Cash buck, then  a incentive goes to that bearer of Cady Cash. For years very little in way of enticements moved residents to want to learn, now Cady Cash is used as a fulcrum. Now residents turn in Cady Cash to teachers for snacks etc. I know getting students to learn in a locked down situation is hard, but what the heck- snacks for success.

I have witnessed more enthusiam for youth participating in basketball slam dunks in CJTS than teaching those three RRRs. Let me also point out most of those residents are non-white and one wonders if there is really a vested interest in helping them to learn. Bounce that ball but forget subject/verb agreement.

OLD SOLDIER DESCRIBES INJUSTICE ON THE PLANTATION

I believe the stories told by others have an effect on the present situation people live in. The black man approached me and began a tale that kept me spell bound and intrigued for over an hour. His story connected the old struggles of non-whites on the DCF Plantation for respect and jobs. Power brokers started an agency in Hartford named The Department of Children and Youth Services in 1969 and blacks, the old soldier recounted, could not get jobs. "A white hiearchy did not want us to have those jobs. I applied for a job at Long Lane  [now called Connecticut Juvenile Training School ] and was denied. Eventually we secured jobs at Long Lane as Diagnostic Secure Treatment Unit personel [in 1970s]-where the youth were locked up." As the man continued it became clear to me his plight in the 1970s and 80s continues today in 2013, as a legacy of white supremacy, within a new DCF Plantation type structure. At the old Long Lane this racism stood out, white supervisors used certain blacks to enforce apartheid. "Cornell the racism then did not hide, it manifested itself in a raw form." Certainly today the story within DCF Plantation or CJTS is different: policies and procedures are the fulcrum used to keep non-whites "in their place". Management also have become sophisticated in using certain blacks and whites as control agents; this tactic is in full swing not only at CJTS but the entire plantation. A link from the plantation's past connected me to our struggle in 2013: the past is prologue and relevant in a struggle such as this.The old soldier then pulled up a pants leg to show scars from dog bites from years ago. "Cornell, years ago as a boy in Birmingham Alabama, I marched with Martin Luther King. Those cops turned on the water hoses and let dogs go on us [as children] we fought them [racists] then. It is necessary to fight now." He looked at a watch then smiled. "Well this story is over; hope you keep fighting for equality on the DCF Plantation like I did. Watch your back."