To Psychiatric Prison—

Garner Grapples

With Transition

By Andrew Gorosko

As the warden of Garner Correctional Institution explained it this week to members of the town Public Safety Committee, state Department of Correction (DOC) officials expected there would be some rough spots while Garner was making the transition to the state’s prime prison for inmates with serious, chronic mental health disorders.

And that has proven to be the case, according to Warden Giovanny Gomez.

Warden Gomez met with members of the Public Safety Committee for Garner Correctional Institution on June 1 at Booth Library. It was the regular quarterly session of the town panel, which meets to address public safety issues posed by the presence of the high-security prison at 50 Nunnawauk Road.

As Garner’s transition to a psychiatric facility has been underway in recent weeks, the prison has been hit by a string violent incidents, including two deaths.

On the afternoon of May 19, prisoner Dennis G. Kinsman, 47, of Manchester, died in a violent incident. State police are investigating the circumstances surrounding Kinsman’s death, as is the DOC.

At approximately 3:15 pm on May 19, Kinsman “became physically disruptive and assaultive…As staff attempted to gain control of the inmate, he suffered apparent cardiac arrest,” a DOC spokesman has said. Kinsman was transported to Danbury Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at approximately 4:30 pm.

At about 1 pm on April 7, during a routine check of locked inmate cells, prison staff members discovered inmate William Packard, 25, of Bloomfield to be unresponsive inside his single-occupancy cell. Packard was found with one end of a bed sheet tied around his neck and the other end of the sheet secured to a vent, according to the DOC.

Correction officers and prison medical staff then began emergency life saving measures and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation in an attempt to revive Packard. Packard was transported to Danbury Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:20 pm. Authorities have said they believe the death was self-inflicted, with no criminal involvement.

In another incident, on May 25, a prisoner assaulted a prison counselor, punching the man in the head; he required medical treatment outside Garner, according to the DOC.

On May 23, one Garner prisoner stabbed another prisoner with a sharpened handmade weapon, resulting in the victim’s hospitalization.

On May 10, a Garner prisoner assaulted a correction officer.

On May 5, another Garner inmate assaulted two correction officers.

On April 23, one prisoner beat his cellmate with his fists and with an electrical appliance.

Following such prison incidents, state police are called in by the DOC to investigate and to press criminal charges against the offenders, who then face a round of court appearances.

Last February 26, the DOC announced that Garner, which has long specialized in housing inmates with mental health problems, would be expanding that role to become the prime state facility for prisoners with serious mental disorders. The 260,000-square-foot prison on a 118-acre site opened in November 1992.

The mental health consolidation is intended to concentrate DOC inmates with serious mental disorders in a facility that is staffed with employees specializing in mental health care. The consolidation is intended to streamline the DOC’s mental health screening and diagnostic programs to generally improve its prisoner mental health care. The consolidation’s goal is to allow mentally ill inmates to return to a higher level of social functioning and to allow them to live in the least restrictive prison environment possible.

‘Quite Busy’

At the June 1 session, Warden Gomez told safety panel members, “We’ve been quite busy.”

“We’re hoping to settle in a little bit. It’s been a very tough month for us…We’re confident things will settle down,” Warden Gomez said.

DOC officials expected there would be an increased incidence of inmate problems as Garner made the transition to a mental health facility, he said. Mental health inmates typically do not function well when the circumstances of their incarceration change, he said. Such inmates require time to “settle down” after change occurs, the warden added.

Warden Gomez said he expects that the rate of inmate incidents will decrease across time. The warden said he expects that it will take about six months for the prison to settle into its changed role in the state prison system.

The Garner warden said that although there have been a series of inmate incidents at the prison recently, those situations never posed any public safety hazards to the community, and were contained within the facility. “Our staff did all the right things,” he said.

“It was all an internal situation,” said First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal, who is chairman of the public safety panel.

Inmate Housing

On June 1, there were 638 inmates housed in Garner, 486 of whom were designated as mental health inmates, and 152 of whom were listed as general population prisoners.

Some fraction of the inmates who will be housed at Garner, possibly about 125 inmates, would be held there on “accused status,” meaning that they have not been sentenced. Such prisoners, who typically are held on high bail, are those who travel under guard between Garner and the courts for court appearances.

Warden Gomez said he expects that the level of prisoner transport between Garner and the courts will remain at the level experienced in the past. Before its transition to a psychiatric facility, two cellblocks in Garner were reserved for “accused status” inmates. Each cellblock holds 96 inmates.

Although those “accused status” prisoners who formerly were held at Garner have been transferred to various county jails in the state, some of the mental health inmates who have been transferred to Garner are themselves “accused status” inmates, who similarly will require transportation to and from Garner for court appearances, Warden Gomez explained.

Warden Gomez told safety panel members that Garner has essentially completed its transition to the state’s prime mental health prison, in terms of the number of mental health inmates to be held there. Mental health inmates will replace about 30 current general population prisoners in Garner, he added.

Prison Staffing

Although, the number of mental health inmates at Garner is near its maximum, the prison is still in the midst hiring sufficient staff for the transition.

About one quarter of the approximately 35 mental health specialists required for the transition have been hired or are in the process of being hired, Warden Gomez said. The University of Connecticut Medical Center is recruiting mental health staffers for Garner.

It has proved difficult to recruit nurses, the warden said. Garner cannot compete with nurses’ pay offered by private hospitals, he explained.

“Once we get all staff on board, it’s going to make a big difference,” Warden Gomez said.

Approximately one-half of the planned 17 new prisoner-custody staff members needed for the transition have been hired or are being hired, the warden said.

Garner’s prison-custody staff members, such as correction officers, have undergone training to help them spot symptoms of mental health problems among inmates, thus allowing them to make referrals to the appropriate health specialists, according to Warden Gomez.

It is unclear when all of Garner’s new staff hiring will be complete, Warden Gomez said.

Within the prison, various physical changes are being made to make it more secure, Warden Gomez said. Those changes will allow inmates to stay in handcuffs while exiting and entering prison cells. Also, additional surveillance cameras will be in use.

Garner is installing “therapeutic cubicles,” which are containment devices to hold violent mental health inmates while they are undergoing therapy outside their cells, the warden said.

“The goal is to keep them busy,” the warden said. When inmates are outside their cells, they will have structured activities to keep them occupied, he said. “The goal is to really saturate them with a lot of programming, a lot of activity to keep them busy,” he said.

“The mental health [prisoner] population is very needy. They are people who need a lot of attention,” Warden Gomez said.

Garner’s transition to a mental health prison will provide four distinct “treatment tracks” for its inmates. Those treatment programs are designed for: bipolar disorder, psychotic behavior, impulse control, and mood disorder.

Group psychotherapy, individual psychotherapy, and psychotropic medications will be the prime components of inmate treatment.

The treatment program’s aim is to have inmates experience improved personal control, with the eventual goal of allowing them to function in less restrictive prison settings, such as general prison population housing, Warden Gomez said.

Beyond their time in prison, the DOC would seek to provide the inmates with contacts to allow them to function in society, he added.

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.

Garner’s site formerly was part of the grounds at Fairfield State Hospital, a sprawling mental institution commonly known Fairfield Hills. At its height, Fairfield Hills housed more than 3,000 mental patients. Fairfield Hills closed in December 1995. The town plans to buy Fairfield Hills’ 189-acre core campus, including 17 major buildings, from the state for $3.9 million.