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Published on November 20, 2021 at 8:22 PM | Updated on November 21, 2021 at 7:19 PM

Montville — 51 new prisoners were placed in the gym at the Corrigan Correctional Center, a temporary housing unit established in accordance with the COVID-19 quarantine agreement.

But union representatives expressed concern about the safety of staff and prisoners. They said they have been warning that due to the pandemic, there is an expected backlog of unsentenced prisoners, and that with the closure of two prisons this year, the number of available beds across the state will decrease.

Karen Matucci, Director of External Affairs of the Department of Corrections, said that the department was established last week as "a brief operational adjustment to ensure that we comply with the CDC's consistent entry and quarantine agreement (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidance. "

She said that new inmates from the community must complete a 14-day quarantine period and be tested for coronavirus at the beginning and end before they can interact with the entire incarcerated population. However, she said that during this period, people sometimes find close contact with COVID-19 patients as defined by the CDC, so the isolation period needs to be extended.

She added that the move was not because there were not enough beds.

The U.S. Department of Justice shut down Radgowski, one of the two prison buildings in Montville in October, and the Northern Correctional Facility in Summers in June, and plans to close a third prison. Matucci said that the court has slowed down due to the pandemic and is now operating at a higher rate, but the increase in the number of pre-trials has not been affected by the closure of the prison. She said there is "zero overcrowding."

"The population of the Department of Corrections is at the lowest level in history," she said. "Overcrowding is not a problem."

According to statistics from the US Department of Commerce, there were approximately 654 prisoners in Corrigan in October 2021, 615 in September 2021, and 639 in August 2021. There were approximately 620 in October 2020, 626 in September 2020, and 609 in August 2020.

Corrigan’s Corrections Officer and AFSCME Local 1565 Vice President and Corrigan’s Chief Butler Steven Welsh said the danger of keeping people in the gym is that if a person there tests positive for COVID-19, then everyone who comes into contact will be Need to continue to isolate. AFSCME Local 1565 is one of three AFSCME local unions representing frontline correctional officers across the state.

"The gym is not built for housing units," Wales said. He added that it does not have enough bathroom space or showers, so the prisoners must be transferred to another place to bathe.

"No one wants to sleep in a crib on the floor," he said, adding that the gym does not have safety facilities to accommodate a large group of people.

"We don't have any other place to put them right now. Obviously this was done when the Radgowski building was closed, so the timing seems bad," he said.

AFSCME Local 1565 Chairman Michael Vargo said that since September, incidents at Corrigan and other facilities where Local 1565 members work have increased, including attacks on employees.

Vargo pointed out that after the pandemic closed and slowed, the courts are reopening and accelerating, bringing in new prisoners. "The problem is that county-level prisons are overcrowded and lack space. For more than a year we have been complaining that these prisons are closed and housing and beds are restricted," he said. He said that if needed, facilities like the Northern Correctional Institution can be used to house un sentenced prisoners.

Vargo pointed out that Radgoswki is a dormitory environment and therefore cannot send unsentenced prisoners there, but Wales pointed out that there are some sentenced prisoners in Corrigan that could have been sent to another facility to make more space.

Wales stated that the closure of Radgowski and Northern limited the total number of available beds. "There is no place to look around for these prisoners," he said. 

Martucci said that Corrigan’s temporary housing unit was due to the pandemic agreement and the need to separate quarantined people from others. She said that although the dormitory environment is more likely to spread the virus, 51 prisoners slept on separate beds in the room.

She pointed out that it is not uncommon to use this type of temporary housing when needed, and the DOC positive rate of coronavirus is lower than that of the general community.

She said the DOC is still focusing on cleanliness, providing vaccines and further testing prisoners, including before transferring them to another facility, before leaving the hospital, and before making appointments. She said that the entire population will be tested on a large scale every two weeks.

"The safety of our employees is our top priority," she said. "All our prisons have dormitories, and they are staffed appropriately."

She said prisoners who tested positive for COVID-19 and were asymptomatic would stay in a separate area of ​​the facility, while those with symptoms would be sent to the medical isolation room of the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution.

The AFSCME Committee4 also held a press conference in September, calling attention to the shortage of 406 workers in Connecticut prisons and projects, and it is expected that there will be nearly 400 eligible retirees next year. Wales stated that Corrigan is currently overcrowded because it absorbed staff when Radgowski closed, but he said that over time, the staffing situation has yet to be determined.

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