The Associated Press via Boston.com
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — Unionized prison guards are warning of inmate riots and other problems inside the state’s lockups if the government goes ahead with planned budget cuts.
Governor Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, has asked the Department of Correction to cut the equivalent of 1,019 positions and trim $62.9 million from its budget in the current fiscal year and $78 million in the next. He made the request after state employee unions failed to ratify a $1.6 billion labor savings deal needed to balance the two-year, $40.1 billion state budget.
The state plans to close the Bergin Correctional Institution in Mansfield next month and the Enfield Correctional Institution in Enfield by October. The presidents of three prison employee union locals, which represent about 5,000 prison workers, said the cuts will lead to overcrowding in the remaining prisons, dangerous inmate-to-staff ratios, and even too few maintenance workers to keep all the showers and toilets working.
Full Story: Prison guards say Conn. cuts could mean riots