DOC Seeks To Extract Disruptive Prisoners

By Andrew Gorosko

In seeking to extract disruptive prisoners from Garner Correctional Institution, the state Department of Correction (DOC) has enlisted a psychologist to determine which inmates there should be transferred to other state prisons.

Garner Warden James Dzurenda last week told members of the Public Safety Committee for Garner Correctional Institution that correctional psychologist Dr Steven Helfand has been working in Garner to learn which inmates there do not need the prison’s specialized mental health care, and thus should be transferred to some other DOC prison.

Such a review of inmates’ mental health needs might “weed out” approximately 75 inmates from Garner who do not belong in a prison intended for prisoners with serious mental health disorders, Warden Dzurenda said.

On June 7, approximately 540 of the 629 male prisoners in the high-security Garner were categorized as mental health inmates, he said.

During the past year, the DOC has consolidated its treatment for mental health inmates at Garner, a 260,000-square-foot facility on Nunnawauk Road, which opened in November 1992.   

That consolidation is intended to concentrate DOC inmates with serious mental health problems in a facility that is staffed with employees specializing in mental health care. The consolidation is intended to improve and streamline the DOC’s mental health screening and diagnostic programs to generally improve prisoner mental health care.

Warden Dzurenda told committee members that the DOC does not want to keep inmates in Garner who feign mental illness in order to be housed there, rather than at some other prison which those prisoners consider less desirable.

By “weeding out” the inmates who do not belong in Garner’s mental health units, the DOC’s program for the mentally ill would be improved because “disruptive” inmates would be removed from the prison, he said.

Warden Dzurenda explained that some inmates feign mental illness for ulterior motives in seeking to exploit the Garner inmate population for illicit purposes.

Dr Helfand told committee members that the DOC is creating a set of minimum standards for inmates to receive Garner’s specialized mental health care.

Dr Helfand said he expects to spend the next three months at Garner reviewing which inmates should be removed from the institution to improve the overall functioning of the mental health program there.

Dr Helfand is the director of mental health for the University of Connecticut’s correctional managed health care program. The DOC contracts with UConn for mental health care services.

Mental health treatment at Garner seeks to have inmates increase their personal skills, with the overall goal of improving their quality of life, and ultimately reducing prisoner recidivism.

Group psychotherapy, individual psychotherapy, and psychotropic medications are the prime components of inmate treatment. Occupational and recreational therapies are employed. Treatment programs address problems including depression and mood disorders, psychotic behavior, mental retardation, organically based disorders, and impulse control.

Inmates who do well after therapy at Garner may be transferred to another prison, where they would receive out-patient, follow-up mental health care. But inmates who exhibit chronic serious mental illnesses, which require specialized prison housing, remain at Garner.

Garner is a Level 4 prison, in a prison system in which the highest security rating is Level 5. The DOC manages its Garner prisoner population through containment and isolation, preventing large numbers of inmates from gathering.