Garner Still Housing ‘Overflow’ Prisoners

By Andrew Gorosko

Due to the state budget crisis, newly constructed prison space in Suffield has not yet been occupied by inmates, resulting in continuing inmate overcrowding at the state’s Garner Correctional Institution on Nunnawauk Road, among other state prisons.

Garner Warden Giovanny Gomez on March 4 told members of the Garner Public Safety Committee that state Department of Correction (DOC)  officials had hoped that 600 new prison beds at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield would have been in use by now, but  state budget problems have resulted in a lack of funds to staff the newly built facility.

Consequently, Garner, and some other state prisons, are still housing “overflow” prisoners, the warden said. Garner first housed such prisoners last August.

As of March 4, Garner held 795 inmates, 69 of whom were overflow prisoners being kept in the institution’s huge gymnasium, Warden Gomez said.

Last December 10, at the last quarterly session of the public safety panel, Warden Gomez reported that there were 807 inmates in Garner, 68 of whom were overflow prisoners.  

Last September 17, Garner held 809 prisoners, 71 of whom were housed in the gym.

The DOC has placed a 75-man limit on the number of prisoners that can be kept in the Garner gym, Warden Gomez said. The prison has a rated capacity of 750 prisoners. Garner is a Level 4 high-security prison. The highest security rating in the state prison system is Level 5 maximum security.

Besides the 69 inmates who were being held in the Garner gym on March 4, the prison held 249 mental health inmates, 203 general population prisoners, 185 inmates who are either awaiting trial or sentencing, and 89 prisoners in the gang control unit, Warden Gomez said.

 Warden Gomez said it is unclear how long it would be before the overflow prisoners in Garner and in other state prisons are housed in permanent quarters elsewhere.

“We’re in a holding pattern right now,” the warden said.

The inmates serving time in the gymnasium are nearing the end of their sentences and thus have an incentive to behave themselves, according to Warden Gomez. “There’s been very little problem,” he said. For the most part, such inmates are compliant, he said.

The inmates housed in that open gymnasium setting are lower security risks than the prisoners that live in typical two-inmate cells throughout the prison.  

Lately, some of the inmates being housed in the Garner gym have been transferred there from county jails to do 30-day sentences for drunken driving convictions, the warden said.

The inmates held in the gym are housed separately from the larger prison, which is designed to hold Level 4 inmates, who pose high security risks. Garner holds seven cellblocks, plus specialized prisoner-holding areas, including an acute psychiatric unit.

The DOC is in the planning stages to build space for 720 new prison beds in Somers. Also, the DOC contracts with the state of Virginia to house 500 inmates.

Of Garner’s general operations for the past three months, Warden Gomez said the complex “has been relatively quiet.”

New Commissioner

Warden Gomez said that with the planned March 10 retirement of DOC Commissioner John Armstrong, the governor will appoint a new commissioner soon. A career DOC employee, Mr Armstrong has been the DOC commissioner since 1995.

Public safety committee members agreed to send Mr Armstrong a letter complimenting him on his work as commissioner.

Panel members also decided to extend an invitation to the new commissioner to meet with them to discuss the public safety issues.

The panel meets quarterly to address public safety issues posed by the presence of the high-security Garner at 50 Nunnawauk Road.