Record-Journal
09-06-2007, 10:52 PM
CHESHIRE -- Space for more than 500 additional prisoners will be made available in the vacant North Block of Cheshire Correctional Institution, state Judiciary Committee Chairman Michael Lawlor said Thursday, but according to a spokesman for the Department of Correction, plans to add prisoners have not been finalized.
Lawlor, D-East Haven, said Thursday that the DOC would be adding 758 beds to existing prisons in Connecticut, including 504 in Cheshire, over the next few months.
According to the DOC, three facilities have space for additional inmates. Enfield’s Carl Robinson Correctional Institution can house an additional 228, Cheshire can hold 504 more, and J.B. Gates Correctional Institution in Niantic can take 26 more prisoners.
The vacant North Block in Cheshire has been undergoing renovations but was only going to be reserved for emergencies. Although Lawlor is reporting that those plans have now changed, DOC spokesman Brian Garnett said that wasn’t exactly accurate.
“We were asked to provide a list of existing facilities that can be expanded to add beds,” Garnett said. “The operative verb in that request is ‘can.’”
The debate over housing prisoners and the release of inmates gained attention following the July 23 murder of a mother and her two daughters in Cheshire.
Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her daughters Hayley, 17 and Michaela, 11, were killed during a home invasion allegedly committed by two men recently released on parole.
Since the homicides, parole board processes have come under fire, and as a result, Lawlor said, “everyone’s gotten more conservative, from prosecutors to judges to the parole board, so prisoners aren’t being released the way they have been.
The numbers of inmates have been rising consistently for weeks and we have to address that.”
Rep. Alfred Adinolfi, R-Cheshire, who lives just doors away from the Petit house on Sorghum Mill Drive, said he last visited the North Block about three months ago and renovations were “about 85 percent complete, but that doesn’t guarantee they’re done.”
Adinolfi also said the North Block of the prison in Cheshire has always been reserved “as a back-up in case there is a fire or insurrection or other emergency at another prison. We would have to have somewhere to house prisoners in a case like that, and North Block has always been that.”
Rep. Mary Fritz, D-Wallingford, whose district includes Cheshire, said she believes Lawlor has made “quite a leap” from the report to the assumption that the DOC is definitely adding beds.
“People don’t ever hear about the issues Cheshire faces because of the prison,” Fritz said. She described nighttime noise problems, a strain on the town’s sewage treatment plant, and further stress on town infrastructure because of the prison.
“I think Cheshire has done enough,” she said.
Cheshire Town Manager Michael Milone said he has heard nothing official from the state about adding beds at the prison.
“I would hope and expect,” he said, “that if the Department of Corrections is actually making plans to do this, they would notify the town formally and work through the Town Council and town management.”
He said the town is “in the process of working out an agreement with the DOC for additional funds to help pay for some of the additional costs we’ve incurred because of the prison.
For instance, the prison is producing 500,000 gallons more of effluent per day than originally contracted for. They’re paying for it, but it’s pushed us to about 90 percent of capacity, which means we have to begin looking at an expansion of the facility and that’s without considering additional people.”
Garnett said the DOC has not made any formal decisions or begun formal considerations, but also doesn’t discount it completely.
“If the prison population increases over the next month or two, then we will have to consider all of our options,” said Garnett, which could mean the use of additional beds in Cheshire.
But as of right now, Garnett said the only beds that will be used in the “next several weeks will be the beds at Enfield” because the department already had refurbishment underway.
One quad or cell unit will be ready to take an additional 114 inmates by Sept. 15 and a second quad will be ready to house the remaining 114 by late October or early November.
Lawlor said the prison population is already rising and the state needs to move ahead to appropriate funds to cover the cost of adding beds.
“The Office of Fiscal Analysis has informed me that the annual costs of adding these beds to our corrections facilities will be at least $30 million,” Lawlor said in a release.
“This money is not included in the current biennial budget. Funding for increasing the number of beds should be appropriated by the legislature immediately and this funding should be exempt from the state spending cap because it is an unanticipated emergency driven by the current overcrowding situation.”
The current budget is already, he said, at the pre-set cap, so overriding it would require legislative and gubernatorial approval.
“I think we need to let this situation play out a bit,” Adinolfi said. “We have the hearing scheduled for Sept. 11. Let’s see what comes out of that.”
Lawlor, D-East Haven, said Thursday that the DOC would be adding 758 beds to existing prisons in Connecticut, including 504 in Cheshire, over the next few months.
According to the DOC, three facilities have space for additional inmates. Enfield’s Carl Robinson Correctional Institution can house an additional 228, Cheshire can hold 504 more, and J.B. Gates Correctional Institution in Niantic can take 26 more prisoners.
The vacant North Block in Cheshire has been undergoing renovations but was only going to be reserved for emergencies. Although Lawlor is reporting that those plans have now changed, DOC spokesman Brian Garnett said that wasn’t exactly accurate.
“We were asked to provide a list of existing facilities that can be expanded to add beds,” Garnett said. “The operative verb in that request is ‘can.’”
The debate over housing prisoners and the release of inmates gained attention following the July 23 murder of a mother and her two daughters in Cheshire.
Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her daughters Hayley, 17 and Michaela, 11, were killed during a home invasion allegedly committed by two men recently released on parole.
Since the homicides, parole board processes have come under fire, and as a result, Lawlor said, “everyone’s gotten more conservative, from prosecutors to judges to the parole board, so prisoners aren’t being released the way they have been.
The numbers of inmates have been rising consistently for weeks and we have to address that.”
Rep. Alfred Adinolfi, R-Cheshire, who lives just doors away from the Petit house on Sorghum Mill Drive, said he last visited the North Block about three months ago and renovations were “about 85 percent complete, but that doesn’t guarantee they’re done.”
Adinolfi also said the North Block of the prison in Cheshire has always been reserved “as a back-up in case there is a fire or insurrection or other emergency at another prison. We would have to have somewhere to house prisoners in a case like that, and North Block has always been that.”
Rep. Mary Fritz, D-Wallingford, whose district includes Cheshire, said she believes Lawlor has made “quite a leap” from the report to the assumption that the DOC is definitely adding beds.
“People don’t ever hear about the issues Cheshire faces because of the prison,” Fritz said. She described nighttime noise problems, a strain on the town’s sewage treatment plant, and further stress on town infrastructure because of the prison.
“I think Cheshire has done enough,” she said.
Cheshire Town Manager Michael Milone said he has heard nothing official from the state about adding beds at the prison.
“I would hope and expect,” he said, “that if the Department of Corrections is actually making plans to do this, they would notify the town formally and work through the Town Council and town management.”
He said the town is “in the process of working out an agreement with the DOC for additional funds to help pay for some of the additional costs we’ve incurred because of the prison.
For instance, the prison is producing 500,000 gallons more of effluent per day than originally contracted for. They’re paying for it, but it’s pushed us to about 90 percent of capacity, which means we have to begin looking at an expansion of the facility and that’s without considering additional people.”
Garnett said the DOC has not made any formal decisions or begun formal considerations, but also doesn’t discount it completely.
“If the prison population increases over the next month or two, then we will have to consider all of our options,” said Garnett, which could mean the use of additional beds in Cheshire.
But as of right now, Garnett said the only beds that will be used in the “next several weeks will be the beds at Enfield” because the department already had refurbishment underway.
One quad or cell unit will be ready to take an additional 114 inmates by Sept. 15 and a second quad will be ready to house the remaining 114 by late October or early November.
Lawlor said the prison population is already rising and the state needs to move ahead to appropriate funds to cover the cost of adding beds.
“The Office of Fiscal Analysis has informed me that the annual costs of adding these beds to our corrections facilities will be at least $30 million,” Lawlor said in a release.
“This money is not included in the current biennial budget. Funding for increasing the number of beds should be appropriated by the legislature immediately and this funding should be exempt from the state spending cap because it is an unanticipated emergency driven by the current overcrowding situation.”
The current budget is already, he said, at the pre-set cap, so overriding it would require legislative and gubernatorial approval.
“I think we need to let this situation play out a bit,” Adinolfi said. “We have the hearing scheduled for Sept. 11. Let’s see what comes out of that.”