Committee Considers Use Of Warning Siren System At Garner

By Andrew Gorosko

Members of the town’s public safety committee are investigating using a warning siren to alert residents of public safety problems at Garner Correctional Institution, such as prisoner escapes.

Committee members Tuesday agreed to ask officials in other towns that host state prisons whether those towns have such a siren-based warning system, and if so, how well it has worked for them in prison emergencies.

Also, safety panel members decided to keep in place the town’s beeper-based prison alert system and study how that system can be improved. The safety panel meets quarterly to address public safety issues posed by the presence of Garner.

As of Tuesday, Garner held 745 prisoners. Of that number, 94 inmates were in the prison’s close-monitoring program; 185 prisoners are as-yet unsentenced; 241 men are mental health inmates; and 225 prisoners are in the general prison population. Of the 745 inmates, 27 were being kept in restrictive housing for disciplinary reasons. The Nunnawauk Road prison is a “Level 4” facility in the state prison system, in which Level 5 is the highest security category. Garner opened in November 1992.

Garner was wracked by internal strife in its initial months of operation, with numerous incidents of prisoner violence. A major prison riot in the spring of 1993 destroyed a Garner cellblock and sent dozens of inmates and correction officers to area hospitals for treatment of injuries.

Two inmates fled Garner in a nighttime escape in August 1993. Correction officers caught one escapee soon after he left the prison. The other inmate fled to the town center, stole an auto, drove off and conducted a two-week-long crime spree out of the area, before being captured in New Haven.

Following those incidents, the state Department of Correction (DOC) cracked down on Garner inmates, placing tighter controls on their movements within the facility, resulting in relatively calmer conditions, considering that Garner is a high-security prison.

Garner Warden Giovanny Gomez told public safety committee members Tuesday that when he served as the warden of the Brooklyn Correctional Institution in eastern Connecticut, a prison warning siren was used in the event of inmate escapes.

Safety panel member Joy Previdi suggested that some type of combination prison warning system be used locally, including the use of a warning siren.

Ms Previdi, a Grand Place resident, noted that when the two inmates escaped from Garner in August 1993, town police quickly went to her neighborhood to alert people of the problem.

Warden Gomez noted that DOC officials work closely with Newtown police, state police, and the first selectman’s office in notifying them of any serious incidents that occur within Garner. Such matters are categorized as “Class 1” incidents by the DOC.

Warden Gomez said that internal situations occur within institutions which do not pose public safety problems.

“There are internal issues that do not threaten the safety of the community,” he said.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal, who is chairman of the safety panel, said that other than the rioting and escapes at Garner in its first year of operation, there have not been incidents posing public safety problems. The first selectman added, however, that although the prison has been relatively calm for the past eight years, such incidents could occur.

Mr Rosenthal said that Warden Gomez had informed him recently that the state would be using Garner as a staging area for replacement workers in the recent nursing home strike. The warden had called the town to explain the reason for heavy traffic to and from the prison.

Warden Gomez said DOC officials want to create a prison warning system with which everyone can be comfortable. There are different approaches to providing public warnings about prison incidents, he said. The warden said he would check to learn whether the DOC prison in Brooklyn still uses a siren-based warning system.

In the past, when Fairfield Hills was used as a state psychiatric hospital housing thousands of residents, the state used a warning siren to publicize safety breaches there. Coded blasts on the siren described the general nature of the problem.

Safety panel member Sandra Michaud said that because many psychiatric patients lived at Fairfield Hills, those warning sirens were frequently sounded for various security problems.

After the public safety committee’s quarterly meeting in March, committee members had the town conduct an informal poll of Cheshire, Suffield, Enfield, and Somers officials to learn how those towns handle the prison warning issue.

Newtown’s current prison warning system employs a network of electronic beepers which are activated to alert users of public safety problems posed by incidents at the prison. However, because the prison has been relatively quiet during the past several years, there has been little need to use the system.

The town distributed about 50 prison beepers when the prison warning system started. The devices are battery-operated electronic alphanumeric pagers which provide brief text messages to users when the beepers are activated. A past survey of beeper users has shown mixed feelings about whether the beeper system is worthwhile.

Warden Gomez has said there is no single perfect system to alert people of problems at prisons, so the town would have to employ the best compromise available. Warden Gomez has said he would notify Police Chief Kehoe of any available technology he learns of which would improve the local prison warning system.