The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Union members this week estimated the overflow of inmates at 800, saying inmates are sleeping in kitchens, closets and hallways, as well as traditional housing areas that have been stretched beyond their capacity.

The DOC has repeatedly stated that while some prisons are “crowded,” the overflow is not more than the system can handle.

“Our facilities and our staff are very adept at handling the increases and the decreases in our population,” Department of Correction spokesman Brian Garnett said. “We've done it for years, and we do it very well.”

Garnett said there have been no increases in the number of incidents since a recent surge in the number of inmates living in the state's prisons.

“There are many areas of a correctional facility which may be used for housing and are acceptable for housing inmates,” Joan M. Ellis, administrator for the DOC's Freedom of Information Office, wrote in response to The Day's request for overflow statistics.

Connecticut is the only state in the union that does not report a “capacity” in its prisons, due to a state law passed in 1995 that declared the number fluid, and therefore meaningless, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Other state prison systems report one or more capacity statistics: rated, operational or design.

An institution's rated capacity is the number of beds or inmates a regulatory body believes an institution should accommodate. Operational capacity is the number of inmates that can be accommodated based on a facility's staff, existing programs and services. And design capacity is the number of inmates that planners or architects intended for the facility.

According to the DOC's numbers, 83 inmates at Enfield Correctional Institution have access to four toilets, two sinks and two showers from the gymnasium where they sleep. At Garner Correctional Institution — the state's prison for inmates with mental illness — 48 inmates have access to two toilets, two sinks and 12 showers from the gymnasium where they are housed.

While inmates may access toilets from within their cells in a typical housing area, inmates living in makeshift housing must ask for a pass to use the bathroom, Leone said.

In practice, Leone said, most of those inmates have even less bathroom access than the numbers show.

“When you're in the gym, you're in the gym,” he said. “These guys can't just move freely.”

Renee Redman, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, has asked that the DOC immediately rectify an overcrowding situation she has called inhumane and unconstitutional. She said this week that she does not believe that 83 inmates sharing four toilets to be “reasonable” access.

“We don't know what 'access' means,” Redman said.

Garnett said the DOC stands by the numbers it has provided.

“Our facilities are safe, they're secure, they're orderly and they're humane,” he said.

The DOC's statistics, Redman said, “confirm the types of things that we're hearing about, and in many ways raise more questions than they answer.”

The DOC has agreed to investigate Redman's claims — which she said were derived from dozens of letters from inmates — if she agrees to hand over the names and letters of those inmates who have complained.

The department last voluntarily reported capacity numbers of any kind in 2000, according to William Sabol, chief of the Corrections Statistics Unit for the Bureau of Justice Statistics. At the time, Sabol said, the DOC reported a rated capacity of 17,600 inmates and a design capacity of 16,869. Without a current statistic, he said, it is impossible to determine whether or not the prison population continues to grow at a faster rate than the prison's capacity.

In January, a task force appointed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell, of which Commissioner Teresa Lantz is a member, is expected to release the results of a top-to-bottom review of the criminal justice system in light of the recent triple slaying in Cheshire, allegedly at the hands of two men on parole. After the slaying in July, Rell announced a temporary ban on parole for violent offenders. Since then, the population of the prison system surged by approximately 600 inmates — to 19,600.

http://www.theday.com/re_print.aspx?re=f7ad9448-c0a4-4fa2-883b-6a4ce4e74656