The agency will examine whether Manson’s restrictive housing practices, which keeps juveniles locked in a cell for 23.5 hours a day, violates their constitutional rights.
Department of Correction
Posted inJustice
Commissioner Cook talks about changing times at Connecticut’s prisons
“They didn’t hire me because I could think. They didn’t hire me because I was empathetic. They hired me because I had athletic ability, and I had size.”
Posted inJustice
Sen. Osten asks Sentencing Commission to study mental illness in CT prisons
Osten believes identifying the number of mentally ill people who are incarcerated, and their treatment needs, will allow the state to keep people out of prison.
Posted inJustice
Almost empty: “Monument” to punishment-heavy ’90s sees sharp population decline
Northern Correctional Facility was built to hold up to 584 of “the worst of the worst” inmates in the prison system. Today, there are fewer than 80 men living inside its oppressive walls.
Posted inHealth
Correction Department to begin testing, treating inmates for Hepatitis C
Facing a federal lawsuit, the Department of Correction says it will begin testing and treating inmates for the Hepatitis C virus this fall.
Posted inPolitics
Senate confirms Cook at corrections; no vote on Lehman
The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to confirm Rollin Cook as commissioner of correction. As expected, it took no action on David Lehman, the Goldman Sachs alum nominated to oversee economic development.
Posted inHealth
CT to pay former inmate $1.3M after claims of improper medical treatment
The state has agreed to pay $1.3 million to a former inmate, who claimed correctional staff delayed identifying and properly treating his skin cancer, despite his rapidly deteriorating condition while incarcerated.
Posted inHealth
Legislators grill UConn Health, DOC about inmate health care
Concerns about the medical care provided to inmates in Connecticut’s prisons emerged during a six-hour hearing Monday as family members of inmates testified about substandard care and the correction department’s former chief medical officer told lawmakers that requests for specialized treatment were routinely denied.
Posted inJustice
DOC commissioner sued twice in a week over prisoners’ health care
The commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Correction was sued twice this week, an indication of persistent concerns about the quality of medical care being provided to inmates. The most recent lawsuit, filed Thursday, alleges that a 19-year-old man died after he repeatedly asked for medical attention he never received. A second, a class action lawsuit, claims the department has refused to provide life-saving treatment to those incarcerated with hepatitis C.
Posted inJustice
New prison unit opens to help young female inmates
On Monday, inmates were joined by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Department of Correction Commissioner Scott Semple, and a host of state officials and criminal justice advocates in a dimly lit gymnasium on the grounds of the women’s prison to mark the opening of the W.O.R.T.H. program. Malloy said the unit would help one of the system’s most vulnerable populations through counseling, education and mentorship.
Posted inJustice
In prison, ‘Reimagining Justice’ — and a governor’s legacy
CHESHIRE — In a century-old maximum security prison, a “60 Minutes” news crew recorded visitors mingling Wednesday among inmates and correction officers in a re-purposed cellblock, participants in a criminal-justice experiment that seems destined to become the praised legacy of an unpopular governor, Dannel P. Malloy.
Posted inJustice
Senate adopts bills to safeguard domestic violence victims, incarcerated women
The Senate unanimously passed bills late Tuesday to safeguard victims of domestic violence and incarcerated women. The bills now go to the House of Representatives.
Posted inJustice
New-crime recidivism rates continue to show modest improvement
Inmates released in 2014 were arrested, convicted and sentenced for new crimes at lower rates than past groups, continuing a positive trend in those post-prison outcomes, but returns to prison are not declining at the same rate.
Posted inJustice
Enfield prison to close as inmate population falls
Connecticut is closing the Enfield Correctional Institution, a prison that opened in 1962 as the Osborn Prison Farm and nearly doubled in size by 1987, the early years of a stunning sixfold increase in a state inmate population that peaked in 2008.
Posted inJustice
Another prison facility closes as CT inmate population shrinks
The administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Wednesday the closure of the 254-bed Radgowski annex at the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Montville, saving about $3 million in annual operating costs.