You asked how many children have escaped from Department of Children and Families (DCF) custody, how many of those children were sent to York Correctional Institution or Manson Youth Institution as a result of escaping custody, and what criteria DCF uses when deciding to prosecute escapees.

Anne Cournoyer, legislative liaison for the Department of Correction, said no children are held solely for escaping the custody of the DCF. Rather, many escaped children commit an offense that is punishable by imprisonment before returning to DCF custody and subsequently end up at Manson or York.

Table 1 shows how many youth were at Manson on January 23, 2007. Table 2 shows how many youth were at York on January 23, 2007.

Table 1: Manson Youth Institution Population

Table 2: York Correctional Institution Population under 18 Years of Age

Cournoyer was not able to provide the number of youths at either facility who had escaped DCF custody.

DCF has not, to date, provided data on the number of children who have escaped from its custody or its criteria for prosecuting those it locates. We will forward this information when we receive it.

According to DCF's website, http: //www. ct. gov/dcf/cwp/view. asp?a=2549&Q=314454#q48, caseworkers have explicit instructions when a child runs away from DCF care:

If a child on your caseload runs away, you should immediately notify the [Child Protective] Hotline and those in your chain of command. You should also make contact with all collateral resources who might be aware of the child's whereabouts. These resources include parents, relatives, friends and school staff. All of your efforts to locate the child must be carefully documented. You must continue to make efforts to locate the child until the child is located or the commitment is revoked.

In some situations, the local police may notify the FBI, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or other agencies for assistance. This is not necessary or appropriate in every case. Thus, a case-by-case assessment will be made in each instance regarding how to coordinate these efforts.

New policy regarding the uniform handling of runaway, missing and escaped children is under development.