Union Accuses Agency Of Fraudulent, Poor Quality Training

HARTFORD (AP) — Union officials have accused the state Department of Correction of promoting a fraudulent and low-quality staff training program.

For example, correctional officer David Testa in October 2005 accrued one hour of training toward the 40 hours he is required to receive each year. Local 387 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, of which Testa is vice president, said a simulated assault on the staff at the Cheshire Correctional Institution that served as the training only took five minutes to complete.

And Testa said he never participated.

Union leaders say they have hundreds of examples at Cheshire in which the correction department has not accurately reported correctional officers’ training hours in 2005.

In some cases, correctional officers have been credited for an hour or more of training when the emergency simulation took several minutes or the officers never participated in the drill, the union said. In other incidents, union leaders say officers were not at the prison, though their records reflect that they received training hours.

Union officials have documented the problems at Cheshire, but they believe they are similar statewide.

“What we want is, we want 40 hours of legitimate training,” Testa said.

In a letter last week to Correction Commissioner Theresa Lantz, union leaders called the department’s actions fraudulent and said their training concerns are shared by two other local unions — Locals 391 and 1565 — that represent correctional employees. They urged Lantz to act on the problem.

“It is apparent that the Department of Correction is fraudulently crediting training time to employees who received only a fraction of the full training time for which they are being credited,’” according to the letter signed by Thomas Miles, president of Local 387, and Testa.

Brian Garnett, spokesman for the correction department, denied any wrongdoing and said the agency is looking into the union’s claims.

“The Department of Correction strongly denies that anything fraudulent regarding training has occurred nor has public safety or security of our facilities been affected in any manner,” he said. “The training provided by the Department of Correction is among the best in the country.”

But the union says several examples rebut claims by the agency to the contrary.

The union said that in August 2005, two officers received an hour of training for simulation that lasted nine minutes. And the officers were not at the prison, the union says.

Correctional Officer David Moffa said he did not participate in eight hours of training on December 5, 2005, that the union said the department credited him for.

This year, a correctional officer accrued training hours after switching posts with another correctional officer. In a separate case, a correctional officer was reported to have been trained by an instructor who was not on a master list of instructors.

Simulations held at the facilities, such as suicides or attacks on staff, now count for training when in the past they did not, union officials say. They say the agency is trying to save money at the expense of safety.