This story has been updated.

Several men incarcerated at Cheshire Correctional Institution have begun a hunger strike in protest of what they describe as excessive lockdowns, low quality food and poor medical care. 

The hunger strike began Monday. According to Cornel Myers, who is participating in the hunger strike at Cheshire, there are nine people in total who are refusing to eat. 

“We have no intention of stopping,” Myers told the Connecticut Mirror. 

Rashad Sellers, who is also part of the hunger strike at Cheshire, told CT Mirror that the striking individuals have a list of demands, including better health care and improved quality of food — including that no food be served out of the kitchen, which has had problems with rat infestations. They are also asking that they be allowed a legally-mandated five hours per day of out-of-cell time, the ability to shower after recreational time, improvements to the law library and increases in pay for their work so they can afford increasing prices of goods at the commissary.

Andrius Banevicius, spokesperson for the Department of Correction, said in an email that Cheshire has been locked down five times in the past two weeks — although people incarcerated at Cheshire say the number has been higher. Banevicius said two of the five lockdowns happened overnight, while people were asleep. Another two happened back-to-back, during the day and evening on June 29. He said the June 29 lockdowns were due to multiple “code whites” — instances where an incarcerated person is found unresponsive, requiring a hospital visit. 

But Sellers said the facilities were on a “modified lockdown” from July 3 through July 6, when they received only an hour of recreation in the morning and an hour in the evening. He added that the facility locks down every Wednesday so that corrections officers can undergo training. 

Banevicius said Wednesday training sessions only last a few hours, and are run on different shifts “in order to lessen the impact on particular programs/activities.”

Another individual incarcerated at Cheshire told CT Mirror that the facility was on a modified lockdown for part of the day July 2 and July 3 for the wake and funeral of a corrections officer. Banevicius confirmed this.

Banevicius said staff members at Cheshire met with people on hunger strike “shortly after the initial group began abstaining from food,” to hear their concerns. He said two of the individuals intended to end their strike later in the day Wednesday.

“Staff of the Cheshire facility will continue to address the remaining individuals’ concerns to the fullest extent possible,” Banevicius said.

Banevicius said after people have abstained from eating and drinking for more than 48 hours, they are “assessed by the Department’s medical and mental health staff to insure they receive appropriate treatment and care.”

Staffing requirements

Collin Provost, former president of AFSCME Local 391, the union representing corrections officers, and current service representative with the union, said there’s no hard and fast rule for when a lockdown goes into place. Different facilities have different staffing requirements for recreational time, showering or other programming. 

Correction Ombuds DeVaughn Ward told CT Mirror that over the last four weeks, he’d received between 15 and 20 complaints about the lockdowns at Cheshire.

According to part of an incident report that Ward shared with CT Mirror over the phone, Cheshire went into a lockdown on June 15 — Father’s Day — from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Ward said the facility needed to fill 80 posts to operate that day, but only 39 corrections officers were scheduled to work. Even after five others volunteered to work overtime, and an additional 18 were mandated, 22 posts were “shut down,” or went unfilled. 

Ward said that when he spoke with wardens in the department, they said there’s little they can do to address the problem, since the corrections officers are allowed to take time off for various reasons. Ward said this essentially gives corrections officers control over whether a facility goes into lockdown. 

Banevicius said lockdowns are dictated by staffing levels, and that if low staffing levels require a lockdown, the staffing levels usually will be replenished on the following shift. 

Ward warned against using hunger strikes as a way to communicate with the department, saying it could put incarcerated people at risk. 

“This is not a highly capable medical system, and to do things to weaken your immune system … to make a point about a larger issue that is up to the legislature and lawmakers is just not a great way to go about that,” he said. 

Department of Correction Commissioner Angel Quiros told state legislators in February that the department had over 500 vacancies for corrections officers.

AFSCME’s Provost said vacancies are often cyclical, driven by when each class of corrections officers completes 20 years of service and is able to retire.

But Quiros said that in the 35 years he’s worked at DOC, it’s always had between 300 and 600 vacancies. He also told the lawmakers that the number of incarcerated people has increased in recent years.

According to state data, the incarcerated population has risen from about 9,000 in July 2021 to 11,100 as of this June. 

Overtime pay for corrections officers has also shot up over the last five years, according to Connecticut’s Open Payroll database. In 2019, the state paid corrections officers $54.5 million in overtime. In 2024, that number had risen to $82.6 million. 

According to Quiros, the top reasons for staffing shortages are vacancies and officers taking time away for workers’ compensation, followed by people being out sick or caring for sick family members. 

Banevicius said 194 corrections officers were out on workers’ compensation claims as of July 1. Provost said most claims are connected to people injured during an emergency — for example, running to a medical call or lifting someone to be transported.  

“It’s a situation where … you’re constantly dealing with felons and they’re not always cooperative to think that you’re going to help them. And it’s your job to help them no matter what,” Provost said. 

He said there had also been an increase in people going out on military leave and on family medical leave, which he said was connected to having more female corrections officers. He said people also take time off for vacation, which isn’t factored in when calculating staffing levels. 

Provost said that recruiting and retaining corrections officers has become increasingly challenging. He said that in the 20 years he worked as a corrections officer, wages and benefits stagnated; there were several years he did not receive a wage increase.

He compared the starting salary of a corrections officer, $53,700 after they graduate from the academy, to that of a state police trooper, $76,600, according to the State Police. “The disparity is huge,” he said. 

Provost also said it’s difficult to make the corrections officer job attractive, and suggested a need for some kind of marketing campaign to draw more people in. He noted that the staffing shortages meant that officers who do take jobs with the department are the ones who are then forced to accept mandatory overtime shifts. 

DOC Commissioner Quiros told lawmakers in February that in the 35 years he has worked at DOC, the department had never reached 100% staffing. He said there’s generally a shortage of anywhere between 300 and 600 corrections officers on the department’s payroll. 

A series of strikes

The hunger strike in Cheshire follows two other hunger strikes at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in June and September. The reasons for the September hunger strike were similar to the reasons for the current one at Cheshire: lockdowns, medical care and food quality. 

Myers, who also participated in the September hunger strike at MacDougall-Walker, told CT Mirror that the lockdowns at Cheshire are worse.

He also noted that at MacDougall, people on hunger strike would be able to go to the infirmary, but in Cheshire, they have to remain with the general population “walking around weak and dizzied.” 

Ward said he’s received many complaints about medical care and the food quality from incarcerated individuals. A bill passed this spring in the state legislature gives Ward’s office the power to conduct investigations into any complaints around health care and to collect data on things like appointment wait times and access to medication and medical care. It also requires DOC to provide mental health assessments for incarcerated people when they first enter the department. 

The same bill bans the use of nutraloaf — a mismash of different types of food that is condensed into a large loaf — as a punishment, and requires “palatable” meals.  

Ward said the meals served in Connecticut’s prisons are often high in sodium, highly processed and low in protein. He said he plans to release a report later this year that will look into food services at the state’s correctional facilities. 

Banevicius said the facility menus are created to be in alignment with U.S. Department of Agriculture “Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” and that they meet or exceed a variety of dietary standards developed by national expert organizations. Regarding health care, he said the department “continually strives to provide quality care to the incarcerated population.” He noted that the department spent $150 million on health care services last year. 

“The Department takes the health and safety of all individuals in our custody very seriously,” Deputy Commissioner William Mulligan said in a statement. “We respect the rights of individuals to voice their concerns, we are reviewing their demands to determine what can be addressed within the framework of departmental policy and public safety.”

Clarification:

An earlier version of this story reported that wardens told Correction Ombuds DeVaughn Ward there was little they could do about staffing shortages because of officers taking vacation time. The wardens were referring to time off generally — which includes sick days, personal days and workers comp — in addition to vacation time.