[2] In 1989, a group of plaintiffs instituted an action against the Connecticut Department of Children and Youth Services [3] which resulted in a requirement for federal court supervision of DCF, which has continued for more than 20 years to date.

[citation needed] The Connecticut DCF, as recently as 2012, was under this supervision due to its inability to correct the problems identified.

[2] In July 2003 employees of the Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS) filed a complaint with federal authorities, stating that the DCF did not do enough to protect inmates from sexual assault and violence and that the DCF gave girls at contracted facilities fewer opportunities than the boys at CJTS.

[8] The state of Connecticut used to operate the Long Lane School in Middletown, a juvenile correctional facility for boys and girls of the ages 11–16.

[11] In 2002 the Government of Connecticut announced that the Long Lane School, then the state's designated juvenile center for girls, was closing.

The closure occurred after the Attorney General of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, and a state child advocate, Jeanne Milstein, investigated a suicide attempt at Long Lane and then asked DCF to review its practices regarding the safety of delinquent girls.

[12][13] By 2009 the state was using York Correctional Institution, an adult women's prison, to house some delinquent girls ages 15–18,[14] who had committed crimes as juveniles.

[18] Pueblo Unit, a state-owned, newly opened facility next to the CTJS in Middletown, was established so the state would not have to send juveniles to York.