Town Officials And State Representatives

Lie In Wait For DOC Expansion Plans

By Andrew Gorosko

Town officials and state legislators representing the town plan to stay informed of the state Department of Correction’s (DOC) plans to create additional prison space, with the goal of preventing the DOC from building that prison space in Newtown.

At a meeting of the Newtown Public Safety Committee March 7, First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal told committee members he is especially concerned about a recent report from DOC Commissioner John Armstrong which states, “The overall capacity of the Department of Correction should be increased through an expansion of secure capacity at existing facilities. Expansion of secure capacity should be in the form of celled living units.”

Mr Armstrong, who is chairman of the state’s Prison and Jail Overcrowding Commission, submitted that report recently to Governor John Rowland and the state legislature.

In a March 1 letter to Mr Armstrong, Mr Rosenthal wrote, “Any attempt to build a second facility or a major expansion of the existing Garner facility will be strongly opposed by the Town of Newtown, and any political might that we can assemble will be used.”

Mr Armstrong has not responded to the letter, Mr Rosenthal said.

Garner Correctional Institution, the DOC’s high-security prison on Nunnawauk Road, was built to house more than 700 inmates. Garner’s prisoner population was 649 on March 7. The population is expected to return to about 730 inmates as the DOC continues an ongoing reorganization of its prison system, Garner Warden Giovanny Gomez told safety committee members.

Garner, which opened in November 1992, formerly served as the DOC’s prime facility for housing prison gang members. That function has shifted to Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, Warden Gomez said. Garner will serve as the state’s prime prison for inmates with mental health problems, consolidating that function for the DOC in Newtown, he said. Garner has housed many mental health inmates since the prison opened. It held 188 mental health inmates on March 7.

Inmates who need more mental health treatment than can be provided at Garner will be sent to Whiting Forensic Institute in Middletown, Warden Gomez said.

Mr Rosenthal told Warden Gomez he is pleased with how Garner has been managed during the past several years. The first selectman asked whether an expanded Garner would be a manageable institution. “We’re certainly not anxious to have a second facility built around here,” Mr Rosenthal said.

State Rep. Julia Wasserman said the DOC’s general expansion report precedes the agency’s disclosure of specific plans. Mr Armstrong has not divulged to her which prisons DOC wants to expand, she said.

“To me the most important thing is to stay on top of what is going on… The dialogue is open,” she said.

There was no such open dialogue in the past, she said, referring to the state’s construction of Garner a decade ago. “I intend to stay informed,” Mrs Wasserman said.

State Sen. John McKinney said, “We would not like to see a major expansion or addition here… We just have to stay on top of it.”

The largest state prison in Connecticut is Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers, which houses between 1,700 and 1,800 inmates. Some towns have clusters of prisons, such as Cheshire, which holds four DOC facilities.

Mrs Wasserman said some state legislators are opposed to sending DOC inmates to prisons out of state on a contract basis to alleviate overcrowding in Connecticut. Inmates’ relatives have complained that such transfers make it difficult to visit the prisoners, she said.

Since October, the DOC has transferred 480 inmates to Wallen’s Ridge State Correctional Facility in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Of the 480 inmates transferred there, 119 prisoners were from Garner.

DOC spokeswoman Christina Polce said March 7 the Virginia prison has reached its inmate capacity. 

Mr Rosenthal said, “We need to let the commissioner know… this [prison expansion] is not something we would welcome and would certainly oppose.” The first selectman vowed to muster political influence to fight any DOC expansion in Newtown.

The town does not want to spend another $500,000 in court fighting a prison construction project and then have nothing to show for its efforts, he said, referring to the town’s unsuccessful opposition to the construction of Garner.

“I don’t want to see the same thing happen again,” he said.

Mr Rosenthal said he has contacted state legislators in the area, seeking to marshal opposition to an expansion of prison facilities in Newtown.

Mr Armstrong plans to explain the DOC’s need for expanded prison facilities at a statewide meeting of the Prison Advisory Committee March 17 in Cheshire.