Quietly and with little fanfare, on September 30, 2022, the Hate Crimes Advisory Council of the State of Connecticut issued its annual report detailing its activities over the past year and making recommendations on how Connecticut can address hate crimes and bias-related incidents in this state. The report is available here. It’s worth the read. Now the council needs to get to work prioritizing and putting together a detailed implementation plan.

The council was created to “encourage and coordinate programs to increase community awareness and reporting of hate crimes and to combat such crimes and make recommendations for any legislation concerning such crimes, including, but not limited to, recommendations concerning restitution for victims of such crimes, community service designed to remedy damage caused by any such crime, or that is related to the commission of any such crime, and additional alternative sentencing programs for first-time offenders and juvenile offenders.” In its first year, the council made great strides in these areas.