Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

Advocates push to curtail solitary confinement in CT prisons

  • Justice
  • by Kelan Lyons
  • January 23, 2020
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

Frankie Graziano :: Connecticut Public Media

James Tillman

It’s been 20 years, and James Tillman still hasn’t forgotten what it felt like the first time he trudged down the narrow, gray hallways into the bowels of Northern Correctional Institution.

“It was like walking into the circle of hell,” said the wrongfully convicted inmate-turned-activist. “The conditions are so terrible – worse than any animals could be subject to.”

Tillman told his story to a crowd of about two dozen people gathered in front of the state Capitol on Thursday afternoon as he threw his support behind a proposal that will be released this upcoming legislative session.

The measure, the Promoting Responsible Oversight and Treatment, and Ensuring Correctional Transparency (PROTECT) Act, released by Stop Solitary CT, proposes to mostly prohibit the use of solitary confinement in Connecticut prisons, to close Northern, in Somers, and to guarantee incarcerated people a minimum number of free letters, phone calls and visits each month. The group, with support from Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, is pushing to get the bill on the legislative agenda this upcoming session.

“Solitary confinement serves no practical purpose in our corrections system. It is cruel, outdated and really inexcusable,” David McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut, said at the news conference. Lawmakers passed a bill in 2017 that ended the isolated confinement of children and mandated the state track its use of the practice.

Stop Solitary CT defines solitary confinement as 16 or more hours in a locked cell except in specific circumstances, like during a facility-wide lockdown, as an emergency response to a serious threat or because an incarcerated person requested it for their own protection.

Data circulated by Stop Solitary CT shows solitary disproportionately impacts people of color. More than three-quarters of people in some form of restrictive housing — a catchall term that refers to all different forms of solitary confinement — were members of racial or ethnic minority groups, as of December 2018.

“When I was in prison I wish there was somebody that was speaking up for me while I was up at Northern. Now that I’m out, I’m committed to speaking for those who are inside.”

James Tillman
Prison reform activist

PROTECT would go beyond outlawing most solitary confinement in the state: it would also shutter Northern – a facility advocates say isolates prisoners so much that it threatens their mental health – by the end of this year, create a community advisory council with investigatory powers and require the DOC to provide resources to combat officer burnout, which can cause harm to the population they help oversee.

Former warden of the now-closed Gates Correctional Institution, Robert Gillis, said at the news conference that correction authorities do not consciously set out to inflict harm on those entrusted to their care, but because of the policies and procedures they’re authorized to use, like putting people in solitary, they can unwittingly inflict serious damage. And that, Gillis said, puts correction staff at risk.

“They may become complacent to the presence of substandard conditions,” said Gillis, a steering committee member for Stop Solitary CT. “They may abuse themselves by substance dependence, or worse yet, self-destructive behavior by their own self-imposed isolation from family or significant others.”

The Department of Correction said it uses such restrictive housing sparingly. Spokesperson Karen Martucci said in a statement that the department is “leading the country as a correctional system that has minimized a reliance on the use of Administrative Segregation, which is often referred to as solitary confinement.” Currently, less than 0.3% of the overall population is being held in such confinement, she added. 

“Nevertheless, the agency is continuing to refine its policies with regards to the amount of time offenders spend in their cells, with an emphasis on increased programming, and educational opportunities, along with family reunification efforts,” Martucci said. “For the safety of all involved, staff and offenders alike, these initiatives must be implemented responsibly.”

Tillman, who estimated he spent four years in solitary confinement and more than 18 years in prisons across Connecticut before DNA evidence exonerated him in 2006, said he still carries with him the trauma the state inflicted upon him.

“It left scars, lifelong scars,” he said. “When I was in prison I wish there was somebody that was speaking up for me while I was up at Northern. Now that I’m out, I’m committed to speaking for those who are inside.”

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kelan Lyons is a Report For America Corps Member who covers the intersection of mental health and criminal justice for CT Mirror. Before joining CT Mirror, Kelan was a staff writer for City Weekly, an alt weekly in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a courts reporter for The Bryan-College Station Eagle, in Texas. He is originally from Philadelphia.

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Equity issues dominate hearing on Lamont’s marijuana bill
by Kelan Lyons and Mark Pazniokas

The administration's testimony took up the hearing's first five hours. More than 130 people are signed up to speak.

Three weeks into COVID-19 vaccinations, DOC has vaccinated 10% of inmates, 40% of staff
by Kelan Lyons

Fewer than 850 incarcerated people had been vaccinated as of Feb. 22.

Judiciary Committee hears testimony on changes to last summer’s police accountably bill
by Kelan Lyons

One police chief said they need more time to train officers on new use-of-force rules.

Price tag for state police at Capitol non-protest: $125,000
by Dave Altimari

The National Guard also spent $122,000 in overtime to protect the Capitol and other buildings during that week.

Lamont to nominate diverse first class of trial judges
by Mark Pazniokas

Gov. Ned Lamont is naming Robert Clark as an appellate judge and eight women and seven men as trial judges.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Gas pipeline will threaten water quality, wildlife and wetlands
by Susan Eastwood

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has granted tentative approval of the 401 water quality certification for the Pomfret to Killingly natural gas pipeline. I urge DEEP to deny the 401 certification, as the proposed pipeline would violate the Connecticut’s water quality standards, and the conditions in the draft certification fail to protect our streams, wetlands, and wildlife.

Opinion Connecticut and the other Connecticut. Which will endure?
by Ezra Kaprov

What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘Connecticut’? Possibly, you think of a 43-year-old Puerto Rican man who arrived here with his family following Hurricane Maria. He works full-time as a machinist at the Sikorsky plant, and he coaches a prizefighter on the side.

Opinion COVID-19 increases urgency for legislature to pass medical aid-in-dying law
by Dr. Gary Blick

The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the profound tragedy of loved ones dying alone, in a hospital or nursing home, without the care and comfort of loved ones surrounding them. This pandemic also demonstrates the fragility of life, the limits of modern medicine to relieve suffering, and has magnified the systemic racial disparities in our healthcare system, resulting in higher hospitalization and death rates for people in communities of color. We must eradicate these disparities, so everyone has equal access to the full range of end-of-life care options.

Opinion Three fallacies and the truth about vaccines
by Kerri M. Raissian, Ph.D. and Dr. Jody Terranova

Connecticut’s Public Health Committee recently heard public testimony regarding HB6423 and SB568 --  bills that would remove the religious exemption (the medical exemption would rightfully remain in place) from vaccination in order to attend school.  The religious exemption allows parents to effectively opt their children out of vaccines. In doing so, these families can still send their children to Connecticut’s schools, daycares, colleges, and camps.  This places other children at risk of contracting vaccine-preventable illnesses, and it is imperative the Connecticut legislature remove this exception.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO