Garner Receives Prisoners From Hartford Jail

By Andrew Gorosko

An excess number of unsentenced inmates who were being held at Hartford Correctional Center have been transferred to Garner Correctional Institution at 50 Nunnawauk Road, as the state Department of Correction (DOC) makes some inmate housing transfers to better manage its prisoner population.

Scott Semple, a deputy warden at Garner, told members of the Public Safety Committee for Garner Correctional Institution on June 2 that about 70 of the 81 unsentenced who are now being held at Garner are housed in G Block at the high-security prison.

Unsentenced inmates are those who have criminal charges pending against them. They are the prisoners who are transported to and from various courthouses in the state by judicial marshals as their criminal cases are under adjudication.

The Hartford Correctional Center is a high-security urban jail that primarily holds unsentenced offenders and serves Superior Courts in Bristol, Enfield, Hartford, Manchester, Middletown, New Britain, Rockville, and West Hartford.

On June 2, Garner held a total of 593 male inmates, Mr Semple said. Of that number, 323 prisoners are categorized as mental health inmates, and 189 are classified as general population prisoners. The remaining 81 inmates are unsentenced prisoners.

Garner specializes in holding and treating DOC inmates who have serious mental health problems.

At the last quarterly meeting of the public safety committee on March 3, panel members learned that the prison held 526 inmates.

The June 2 prisoner population of 593 inmates represents an almost 13 percent increase in prisoners compared to March 3.

Mr Semple said that Garner has sufficient prison beds for the 593 inmates. In the past, when prison crowding conditions were more pronounced, Garner received so many inmates from other prisons that some needed to be temporarily housed in the 245,000-square-foot building’s large gymnasium.  

For example, on March 4, 2008, the prison held 666 inmates, of which approximately 50 inmates were housed in the gymnasium.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said that recently, federal law enforcement officials conducted a roundup of wanted felons in the Hartford area, swelling the ranks of those from that area who are now incarcerated in the state prison system.

Chief Kehoe said local police have been advised that those Hartford area inmates, who are now being held at Garner, may have prison gang affiliations.   

Mr Semple told committee members that on June 1, the prison went into “lockdown mode” during which correction officers started one of the institution’s two semiannual prisoner “shakedowns” in seeking to confiscate any contraband. The lockdown was expected to end by June 5, he said. During such lockdowns, inmates are restricted to their cells.

Generally, forms of “nuisance contraband” have been confiscated, he said. These include items supplied to prisoners that have been physically converted for unauthorized purposes, he said.

Mr Semple said the DOC has been having some Garner inmates work on a litter patrol to keep areas near the prison, including Nunnawauk Road, free of litter. The prisoners primarily collect litter on state property, he said. “We try to keep the area clean,” he said.

Mr Semple said that a major training exercise planned for Garner correction officers still remains on hold, considering the state spending constraints that have been placed on the DOC in view of hard economic times.

“We’re operating on a tight, tight budget, even as far as paper products are concerned, “ Mr Semple said.

 The public safety committee meets quarterly to address public safety issues posed by the presence of Garner.