Date: Fri 21-Feb-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Garner-close-custody

Full Text:

Garner `Close Custody' System Wins High Marks

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Remi Acosta, the warden of Garner Correctional Institution, has told members

of the Newtown Public Safety Committee the high security prison has received

an award for its "close custody" program designed to control violent inmates.

Warden Acosta spoke Tuesday at the quarterly meeting of the committee, which

was formed to keep open the lines of communication between the state

Department of Correction (DOC), the town, and the public.

Warden Acosta said the close custody program has proved successful in

controlling violent inmates; 375 inmates have completed the program.

The DOC began close custody in the fall of 1993 to strictly limit the physical

freedom of prisoners who are gang leaders and who resort to violent tactics to

disrupt the prison. Close custody inmates are kept in their cells 23 hours a

day. They are handcuffed and shackled when escorted through the

265,000-square-foot prison by correction officers.

Warden Acosta said Garner received the 1996 Innovations Award from the Council

of State Governments for the close custody program. Correction officials from

other states have visited Garner to study how the system works, hoping to

apply the model to prisons in their states.

"We take the most volatile gang members from other institutions" for

participation in the close custody program, Warden Acosta said.

The program's immediate goal is to have its participants renounce their gang

affiliation and enter the "general prisoner population" of the prisons to

which they return after completing the program.

Garner currently houses 700 inmates, Warden Acosta told public safety

committee members.

Of the 700, 342 prisoners are participating in the close custody program, 197

inmates are in mental health units, and 161 men are in the general prison

population, he said.

Five of Garner's inmates have clearances to work outside the institution.

Three of them work on the prison grounds; one works at the Governor's Horse

Guard, Company 2, at the Fairfield Hills grounds; and one works as a janitor

at the state police's Troop A barracks in Southbury, the warden said.

In the past, some committee members have expressed concerns over how inmates

are clothed because they want to be able to clearly identify inmates who have

escaped form the institution. In August 1993, two inmates broke out of Garner

in a daring nighttime, rooftop escape.

Garner uses a color-coded clothing system to identify inmates, Warden Acosta

said.

Prisoners in the general population wear khaki uniforms. Inmates being

transported to and from Garner wear orange jumpsuits. Prisoners in solitary

confinement have red jumpsuits. Close custody inmates wear yellow jumpsuits.

Mental health inmates wear green clothing.

Lifestar

Warden Acosta told committee members the Lifestar helicopter will be landing

in a field next to Garner at 2 pm March 13 to provide a demonstration of its

capabilities to prison staff members. The helicopter landing is part of

several safety programs to be presented to prison staffers as part of Health

Month, he said.

"So, if you see a helicopter landing in the area, don't be worried. It's been

planned," Warden Acosta quipped.

Also, the warden told committee members he has issued a memorandum to staff

members telling them to slow down while driving in the prison area.

At a November 12 committee meeting, committee member Wendy Beres told the

warden that she saw prison staffers driving recklessly in the Mile Hill Road

South area, posing traffic safety hazards.

Mrs Beres has said that with the presence of Garner, Mile Hill Road South has

become a "thoroughfare" that carries much traffic.

Her family often passes Garner when traveling from Newtown High School to her

Turkey Hill Road home, she said.

On one occasion, a Garner employee attempted to pass her vehicle on Mile Hill

Road South, a narrow road with blind curves, she said. Mrs Beres asked that

Garner employees obey the speed limit on that street.

When Garner opened in November 1992, it was largely staffed by new,

inexperienced correction officers. A prison riot in April 1993 that sent

dozens of inmates and guards to hospitals, coupled with the August 1993

double-prisoner escape created an apprehensive mood among residents who called

for stricter measures to be taken to control inmates. The close custody

program started several months later.