Rosenthal To DOC:

No New Prison Facilities In Newtown

By Andrew Gorosko

Although the state Department of Correction (DOC) has extended the deadline for cities and towns to submit proposals to it for expansions of existing prisons and the construction of new prisons, First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal is reiterating that Newtown is not interested in hosting any additional state prison facilities.

Mr Rosenthal made the comment at a September 5 meeting of the Newtown Public Safety Committee, an ad hoc panel which addresses the public safety issues posed by the presence of Garner Correctional Institution, the state’s high security prison on Nunnawauk Road which opened in 1992 and houses about 730 inmates.

In an August 24 letter to Mr Rosenthal, Joel Ide, the DOC’s grants and contracts manager, wrote that DOC has extended the deadline for municipalities to submit prison facility proposals to DOC until September 22.

Mr Rosenthal said the town is not interested in any expansion of Garner or in the construction of any new prison here.

In July, after the first selectmen had received an initial letter from the DOC requesting that the town submit a proposal for an expanded Garner or a new prison, Mr Rosenthal indicated there was no local interest in having additional facilities in town, stressing that the town would not be submitting any proposal to the DOC.

The DOC is soliciting municipalities to consider being the host communities for new state prisons as it grapples with prison crowding problems. The prisoner population has grown swiftly during the past several years and shows no immediate signs of slowing down, according to DOC.

Garner Warden Giovanny Gomez told committee members that several municipalities in the state have expressed interest to the DOC about hosting new or expanded prison facilities.

State Rep Julia Wasserman said DOC Commissioner John Armstrong has told her the DOC has no current plans to enlarge Garner.

“What happens ten years from now, I don’t know,” she said.

But as matters now stand, the DOC has no plans to enlarge Garner in the foreseeable future, she said.

The DOC owns a large piece of undeveloped land adjacent to Garner. The state created a site for the construction of Garner by splitting off a piece of land along the eastern edge of its Fairfield Hills property.

Mrs Wasserman said the state legislature’s Program Review and Investigations Committee, which she heads, will be conducting a study on inmate crowding problems in the state prison system.

Mr Rosenthal has said any DOC attempt to expand Garner would meet with organized local political opposition. He has added, though, that it would be foolish for the town to again mount a major legal battle against prison construction, such as the losing battle the town fought over the construction of Garner a decade ago, spending roughly $500,000 in attempting to prevent the facility from being built here.

In a past 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.”

Town officials and state legislators representing the town have said they plan to stay informed of the DOC’s intentions to create additional state prison space, with the goal of preventing the DOC from building that prison space in Newtown.

The state legislature recently turned down a DOC initiative to create more prison space in New Haven in light of strong New Haven opposition to that proposal.

To stem prison overcrowding in the state, the DOC has sent about 500 Connecticut inmates to Wallen’s Ridge State Correctional facility in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. That prisoner transfer has proved controversial among the relatives of those inmates, who have alleged there are instances of abuse against inmates at the Virginia prison by prison staff members.