By Ken Dixon
The Hour, Norwalk, Conn.
HARTFORD, Conn. — The state Department of Correction needs to do a better job providing nutrition, medication and treatment for the state’s 11,000 incarcerated people, a legislative committee said Tuesday.
The bill, which won bipartisan support in the Judiciary Committee and next goes to the House, would order an audit of nutrition and food services, and require medical histories of offenders in pre-sentencing reports.
State Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D- Bridgeport, co-chairman of the committee, said Sunday’s inmate death of a 45-year-old at Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers underscored the importance of the issue. Nine inmates have died in Connecticut prisons this year, according to data from the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and state officials.
“I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say the provision of health care services within the Department of Correction right now is at a crisis level,” Stafstrom said. “Every day this committee hears more and more stories about folks having untenable wait periods to get to see a doctor. We hear every day about specialized services not being available to inmates. And probably most concerning, we hear repeated stories about how routine medication is not delivered to individuals on a daily basis.”
The result, Stafstrom said, could be long-term health problems, even for people who had only short stays in local jails or correctional institutions.
“It is extremely disconcerting and troubling to hear about the deaths of inmates in our correctional facilities,” said state Sen. John Kissel of Enfield, a ranking Republican on the committee who has major prisons in his district. “The last few years we have seen a lot of people dying in the Department of Correction. Troubling.”
He said the town of Somers is overwhelmed with the responsibility of handling ambulance calls at DOC facilities.
“It’s got to change,” Kissel said. “We’ve got to move this along because the Department of Correction — I hate to say it, but I’m going to say it — has to get its act together. It’s poorly staffed; it doesn’t seem to have a rudder.”
State Sen. Gary Winfield, D- New Haven, co-chairman of the committee, said he has “struggled” to get answers for families of incarcerated people who need treatment and medication.
“When someone is in our system and we aren’t being responsible, and day-to-day they are miserable, we are breaking that human being,” Winfield said. “I’m never shocked, unfortunately, when I hear of a death because I know what we have done that breaks these people.”
During the public hearing process, the bill was opposed by Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget staff. In testimony to the committee, Daniel Karpowitz, undersecretary for Criminal Justice Policy and Planning Division, said the various health issues require an ongoing, interagency approach.
“These issues are complex and an administration priority,” Karpowitz wrote. “The administration believes that a new paradigm is possible for the approach to medical care delivered to people incarcerated in Connecticut .”
Earlier this month, Lamont announced Deputy DOC Commissioner Sharonda Carlos will lead the agency following the May 1 retirement of Commissioner Angel Quiros.
“We have a duty,” said Rep. Craig Fishbein of Wallingford, a ranking Republican on the committee who voted against the legislation because he said it needs further drafting. “Certainly the bill that’s before us tries to do things that, frankly, Corrections should be doing themselves. Fortunately the legislature recognizes a problem.”
Rep. Greg Howard, R- Stonington, a police detective, said DOC guards need more support and personnel.
“In a lot of ways, the Correction officers seem to be the biggest advocates for the incarcerated people they serve,” he said. “We can’t sit here and demoralize an entire group of people in the state of Connecticut that are doing probably one of the most difficult jobs that we ask anybody in this state to do. I think, on the whole, the department and the members of the department want to serve their people well.”
This story contains previous reporting by Staff Writer Lisa Backus.
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