Search

(WTNH) – Packed beyond capacity, safety has become a growing problem behind prison walls. Correction officers, paid to keep the peace, often find themselves the target of attacks.

The Correction Officers Union says not enough is being done. And today, lawmakers who have most of the prisons in their districts, joined with the Speaker of the House to announce a Prison Task force aimed at making things safer for those working in the prisons.

The last time the Correction Department allowed a television camera into a Connecticut prison was 9 months ago. It was a day that the Correction Officers Union was warning about a growing and serious overcrowding problem.

In the past year, the prison population has grown from 18,900 to nearly 19,500. According to one source, there were five serious assaults on CO’s in a period of just eight days.

“There’s been actually an incident a couple of days ago in Enfield where an inmate broke the nose and cheek bone and eye socket of a correction officer,” Jon Pepe, of the Prison Employee’s Union, said.

They say part of the problem is that the maximum security facility, known as Northern, is jam packed. They also claim the gang program has been moved there, as well as Adminstrative Segregation for violent prone and troublesome prisoners. They allege the department moves inmates out of Administrative Segregation known as AS too soon and too often before they are ready because of the over crowding.

“An inmate, that had graduated from the AS program at Northern, was transferred to Corrigan and violently attacked two officers,” Brett Owen, of Prison Employee’s Union, said.

“These incidents are a wake up call,” House Speaker Jim Amann said. “And, these are just the ones that we know about, that we should be talking about openly before one of these fine men and women really get injured extremely bad or might lose their life.”

The Speaker of the House announced the formation of a task force, made up of guards and others, who work in the system to recommend ways to cope with the overcrowding.

The Governor said today that her commissioner says that incidents of violence are not any worse than in previous years. “When you look at the statistics, over the last ten years, I’m saying ten years, not just recently, it averages to be about the same,” Governor Jodi Rell said.

Speaker Amann says he wants the Correction Department to participate in the task force. But, a spokesperson for the agency says they haven’t received the invitation yet and won’t comment until they do.

Whatever is recommended is likely to cost more money at a time when money at the State Capitol is in short supply.