Commissioner: No Plans For Garner Expansion

By Andrew Gorosko

State Department of Correction (DOC) Commissioner John Armstrong told members of the Prison Public Safety Committee Monday that although the DOC is seeking to increase the number of prison beds in Connecticut, it is not now planning for any increased prisoner space in Newtown.

“We have not planned on an expansion for Newtown,” Mr Armstrong said.

Garner Correctional Institution, a state high-security prison which opened in November 1992, is located at 50 Nunnawauk Road, just east of Fairfield Hills.

Garner is a “Level 4” prison in the state’s prison system, in which the highest security rating is “Level 5.” Garner is designed to house about 730 inmates. On Monday, it contained 691 prisoners. Garner houses a variety of prisoners, including mental health inmates, unsentenced prisoners who are awaiting trials and sentencings, and a general prison population.

Crowding pressures in the state prison system have resulted in the DOC sending about 480 Connecticut inmates to Wallen’s Ridge State Prison in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, a move which has drawn sharp criticism from the families of those inmates, who charge that the prisoners in Virginia receive poor treatment.

Many of the inmates now housed in Virginia were transferred there from Garner.

The DOC has sent inmates to Virginia out of necessity, Mr Armstrong said. To have kept those prisoners in Connecticut prisons and jails would have compromised security, he said.

The prisoner crowding problem in Connecticut prisons and jails stems from the stricter incarceration policies which the state has followed during the past several years, including having inmates serve longer portions of their court-imposed sentences, Mr Armstrong said.

Also, stricter penalties are now issued to prisoners for violating prison rules, he said.

As prisons have become stricter environments, the crowding pressures within them have increased, he said.

Earlier this year, the DOC solicited municipalities throughout the state to either support having existing prisons and jails expanded, or to host new prison facilities.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal, who heads the Prison Public Safety Committee, then informed DOC that Newtown wants no increase in the number of local prison beds, adding that the town would marshal political support to oppose any expansion of DOC facilities here.

When Garner was in the planning stages a decade ago, the town mounted a major court battle opposing its construction. The state and the town later reached a settlement of the town’s lawsuit against the state, which allowed the prison to be built, provided that the state give the town some real estate at Fairfield Hills and construct the Fairfield Hills bypass road, among other provisions.

“Prisons are not easy to site. They’re not inexpensive,” Mr Armstrong told committee members of the DOC’s continuing effort to create new prison space in Connecticut.

Earlier this year, the DOC dropped a proposal to create new prison cells in an unused armory in New Haven after the proposal drew strong opposition from New Haven residents and officials.

Six communities across the state have expressed interest in hosting new prison space, Mr Armstrong said.

DOC officials are discussing a possible expansion of existing prison facilities in Suffield with local officials there, he said.

Also, the DOC is in the talking stages with the cities of Waterbury and New Britain about the potential for DOC prisons in those municipalities, he said.

 Mr Armstrong said he hopes an expanded prison system in the state would allow DOC to increase the prisoner rehabilitation programs that it offers. Intervening in prisoners’ lives to change negative behavior, to provide prisoners with job skills, and to resolve mental health issues could save the state money in the future, in terms of incarceration costs, he said.

Of committee members’ concerns about prisoner transportation, Mr Armstrong said DOC makes thousands of prisoner transport trips annually and has had very few problems in doing so. “We have a great record on transportation,” he said, adding that such work is very well organized.

Changed Approach

The public’s strong negative response to the incidents that occurred at Garner shortly after it opened affected the way in which the DOC has come to interact with the communities which host prisons, Mr Armstrong said.

In the spring of 1993, Garner experienced a major prison riot, which destroyed a cellblock and sent about 30 inmates and correction officers to area hospitals for treatment of injuries suffered in the rioting.

In August 1993, two inmates made a nighttime escape from Garner. Correction officers quickly captured one inmate. The second inmate made his way to the town center, stole an auto, and went on a two-week long crime spree out of the area, before being captured in New Haven.

Also, when Garner was new, there were many assaults of rookie correction officers by experienced prison inmates.

“There were a lot of things that went on when the place opened,” Mr Armstrong said.

 The response of Newtown residents to the problems at Garner in its early days has shaped how the DOC has come to deal with the public in communities which host DOC prisons, Mr Armstrong said.

“It’s good to have communities that are active like this,” Mr Armstrong told committee members.

Although such concern is positive, town residents should not have to think daily about the presence of Garner, he added.

Committee members Monday had been scheduled to discuss whether the town should keep in operation its prison alert system, through which the several dozen holders of electronic alphanumeric pagers are issued brief text messages in the event of security emergencies at Garner.

However, because the committee’s discussion with Mr Armstrong had grown lengthy, committee members postponed discussion on the prison alert system until their March meeting.