New Warden Assumes Command At Garner

By Andrew Gorosko

Garner Correctional Institution, the state’s high-security prison at 50 Nunnawauk Road, is under new leadership with the promotion of Scott Semple, a former deputy warden there, to the post of warden.

Warden Semple replaces James Dzurenda as the top state Department of Correction (DOC) official at the 245,000-square-foot prison which opened in November 1992.

Garner now is being managed by its fifth warden. From its opening until 1996, Frank Crose oversaw the prison. From 1996 to 1999, Remi Acosta was in charge. In 1999, Giovanny Gomez became warden, turning over the post to Mr Dzurenda in 2005.

Stuart “Scott” Semple, 46, joined the DOC in 1988, starting work as a correction officer at the high-security Cheshire Correctional Institution. In 1990, he became a member of the DOC’s specialized Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT), a tactical unit which handles prison emergencies across the state. In 1992, he became a DOC lieutenant.

 During his DOC career, Warden Semple served as a correctional training officer, worked as a captain, became a DOC spokesman, served as a DOC major, and became an agency liaison to the state legislature. In 2003, he became the supervisor of prisoner programs and treatment at the Bridgeport Correctional Center.

In 2004, Mr Semple was assigned to Garner where he helped organize the prison’s transition to a mental health facility for DOC inmates. Two years ago, Mr Semple became a deputy warden at Garner in which role he oversaw prison operations. Garner, located on a 118-acre site, is the state prison which specializes in treating inmates with serious mental health problems.

During Warden Dzurenda’s absences from Garner, Mr Semple served as the prison’s acting warden.

“He’s a smart and good guy,” said Mr Dzurenda who endorsed Mr Semple to become his successor at Garner.

In his role as a DOC’s southern district administrator, Mr Dzurenda will be Warden Semple’s supervisor.

Mr Semple said it is gratifying to have become a DOC warden. “I’m ecstatic about it…I really feel fortunate,” he said. He said it is important that DOC staffers be prepared for any type of emergency that they may face at the high-security prison.

“I know the staff well. I know they’re extraordinarily competent in dealing with this specialized (mental health) population,” he said.

To aid him supervise at Garner, Warden Semple will have two deputy wardens –— Timothy Farrell and Richard Bartholomew.

“I want to meet the expectations of the host community, the Town of Newtown,” said Mr Semple.

Training for Garner staffers will focus on emergency preparedness, he said, adding that a prison cannot operate well unless its employees are trained to deal with any situations that may arise there. Major prison problems may include riots, escapes, hostage situations, fires, and the need for prisoner evacuations.

In a continuing drive to be prepared for various contingencies, DOC staffers at Garner recently developed a training program on the use of elevators in a high-security environment, he said.

 Mr Semple noted that the programs developed at Garner for its mental health inmates have set “benchmarks” in the national corrections field. Correction departments from other states seek to emulate what has become known as the “Garner model” for the incarceration of mental health prisoners.

“It’s always a work in progress,” he added, saying that he will continue to evaluate the mental health programs and services being provided at the prison.

Considering that he has worked at Garner for the past several years, Mr Semple said he expects that his transition into the role of warden will proceed smoothly, providing a sense of continuity at the institution.

Dzurenda Departs

Amid preparations for becoming the DOC’s administrator for its southern district, Mr Dzurenda reflected on his four years in charge of Garner and what the future holds for him.

In his new role, Mr Dzurenda, 43, will oversee DOC operations at eight prisons, including those in Newtown, Cheshire, Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Niantic.

“A lot of my work is sharing my expertise with them,” he said of the advice he would give to wardens at multiple prisons. Advising those wardens will also involve motivating them.

“My biggest goal is to make sure that all emergency procedures are up to par” at the prisons that he will supervise, he said.

Such emergency preparedness is necessary in light of recent staffing cuts in the DOC, he added. Those cuts come as the state seeks to limit spending during hard economic times.

The DOC will always provide a certain minimum level of staff coverage at its prisons. Staffing cutbacks would have no effect on public safety outside the prisons, he said.

Through its mental health programs for inmates at Garner, the DOC is seeking to have as many prisoners as possible enter the “general population” pool of inmates at state prisons. Some inmates, however, who face intractable mental health situations always will categorized as mental health inmates, he said.

Mr Dzurenda noted that the percentage of mental health inmates at Garner is now lower than it was in the past. Through its mental health programs, the DOC seeks to stabilize such inmates through an effective use of medications and/or treatments, he said. Individual counseling or group therapy are employed.

On a recent day, the average age of the male inmates at Garner was 26. Approximately 600 prisoners were being held.

Warden Dzurenda observed, “The mental health aspect was a challenge.”

When he arrived at Garner as the new warden in the spring of 2005, the prison had a violent atmosphere, he said. As such, he needed to determine how best to manage the inmates to make it a less violent place.

To reduce the level of violence, the warden developed a system on how to hold and where to hold certain inmates within the prison based on the nature of their particular problems. That involved deciding which inmates should to be allowed to interact with one another, and also which inmates should be prevented from interacting with one another.

“Violence is way down…Inmates feel like they make progress when they come here,” he said.

When the environment is less violent, inmates gain more benefit from mental health treatment, he said.

The typical stay at Garner for a mental health inmate is now about six months. However, some inmates with serious mental health problems must stay at Garner indefinitely, he said.

Mr Dzurenda said that of the more than 22 years he has worked for the DOC, he found supervising operations at Garner to be his most difficult job.

“This was my hardest task…But it actually was the most rewarding to me,” he said, noting that Garner has become a national model for the mental health treatment of prisoners.

“Our biggest goal is to prepare people for discharge to the community, so they’re not a public safety risk,” he said.

Workers from the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services make up a major component of the DOC’s mental health inmate treatment programs, he said.

Mr Dzurenda, who will be based in Cheshire as the DOC’s southern district administrator, said he expects to travel much among the prisons which he supervises.