prisons

A year-long shortage of nurses at the Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers has become an even more pressing problem with the onset of COVID-19, the union representing the nursing staff says.

Department of Correction Commissioner Rollin Cook has resigned from his post effective July 1, citing family obligations in Utah.

Cook announced his resignation in a heartfelt internal memo Friday.

The ACLU of Connecticut has reached an agreement with the state over its COVID-19 lawsuit filed to protect incarcerated people from the virus.

A prison-rights advocate confronted Gov. Ned Lamont at an outdoor news conference Wednesday, accusing the governor of indifference to the health of prison inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic, not long after the Department of Correction announced that a seventh inmate has died from the disease.

With just a handful of days to go until the state begins to formally, reopen, testing for coronavirus continues to be a major focal point -- and, on Saturday, the state saw a testing surge. 

The Department of Correction placed Osborn Correctional Institution on lockdown Friday after 105 asymptomatic inmates tested positive for COVID-19.

Citing a “once-in-a-century public health crisis,” a U.S. District Court judge has ordered prison officials at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury to speed up the release of inmates to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Attorneys from a Stamford law firm, Quinnipiac University School of Law and Yale Law School filed a class-action federal lawsuit Monday night to force authorities to take emergency measures to protect the more than 1,000 men and women incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury.

A state judge issued a ruling late Friday night dismissing the ACLU of Connecticut’s lawsuit to remove incarcerated people from correctional facilities to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

With over 500 inmates and staff testing positive for COVID-19, there’s concern that people in Connecticut prisons are at high risk.

One 80-year-old man incarcerated in a medium-security prison had a lawsuit filed on his behalf to get immediate release.

An incarcerated person died from COVID-19 on Monday, the first Connecticut inmate to succumb to the virus as the numbers of positive cases behind bars continued to spike.

In an attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the state’s prisons and jails, the Department of Correction will house all infected inmates at four facilities: Manson Youth Institution or Northern, York or Garner Correctional Institutions.

This hour, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont is calling in to give us the latest on the state’s response to coronavirus

This story was updated at 1:32 p.m. with a comment from the Lamont administration. 

The ACLU of Connecticut has filed a lawsuit to force Gov. Ned Lamont and Department of Correction Commissioner Rollin Cook to reduce the number of people incarcerated in Connecticut prisons and jails.

It is impossible to practice social distancing in a prison. Accordingly, authorities in New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, New York and at least 12 other states have sent home people incarcerated for less serious offenses so they would not be exposed to an inevitable outbreak.

What challenges do people with criminal records face when re-entering society? What is Connecticut doing to help prior offenders reintegrate? 

This hour: we discuss challenges faced after leaving prison. This includes finding gainful employment, getting an education and even finding a place to live.

A replica of a solitary confinement cell was displayed in the lobby of the Connecticut state Capitol Tuesday as part of an effort to reform the state’s prison system.

Legislators and visitors are encouraged to go inside the 10-by-12-foot cell, which aims to give people an idea of what solitary confinement might be like. It’s the second time in two years the cell has been at the Capitol as part of a campaign to change the practice. 

A group of activists gathered Sunday in front of the Cheshire Correctional Institution to hold a vigil for incarcerated people who are being held in isolation.

They’re part of the Stop Solitary CT campaign, which is pushing for legislation this session to abolish the use of solitary confinement. 

It’s been 20 years, and James Tillman still hasn’t forgotten what it felt like the first time he trudged down the narrow, gray hallways into the bowels of Northern Correctional Institution.

“It was like walking into the circle of hell,” said the wrongfully convicted inmate-turned-activist. “The conditions are so terrible – worse than any animals could be subject to.”

At sixteen years of age, Reginald Dwayne Betts went to prison for carjacking. Decades later, Betts is a celebrated poet and graduate of Yale Law School. But, like many ex-offenders, the consequences of those teenage mistakes have followed him for years.

A pregnant inmate had complained of pain numerous times to staff at York Correctional Institution during the week before she gave birth in her cell last year, but medical workers did not perform an assessment that would have determined she was in labor, nor did they tell a doctor about her abdominal pain or send her to an emergency room, according to a report unsealed Friday by a federal judge.

The nonprofit Judy Dworin Performance Project harnesses the arts to build social awareness, staging performances that draw on issues ranging from incarceration to immigration.

And it has been doing this for 30 years.

This hour, we sit down with Judy Dworin to reflect on this milestone. We also talk with performers and colleagues, and we hear from you, too. How has the Judy Dworin Performance Project touched your life?

William Outlaw is a natural leader. He's been a key figure in helping to lower New Haven's homicide rate over the last decade. He's a strategist and an organizer who can size up a situation quickly. He can defuse a threatening situation with his charisma and charm. He can run a business. 

As a street outreach worker in New Haven, he uses all the same skills today that he used when he co-ran New Haven's largest cocaine gang in the 1980's. 

At sixteen years of age, Reginald Dwayne Betts went to prison for carjacking. Decades later, Betts is a celebrated poet and graduate of Yale Law School. But, like many ex-offenders, the consequences of those teenage mistakes have followed him for years.