Tag Archives: connecticut

Rep. Lawlor asks for more resources

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In light of yesterday’s prison tour, Judiciary Committee co-chair Mike Lawlor has issued a statement asking Gov. Rell to provide more resources to the DOC. He renews his disbelief over Comm’r Lantz’s assertions before the judiciary committee that they have the prison population under control.

Yesterday I toured the Willard-Cybulski Correctional Institution in Enfield at the request of the corrections officers who work there. After seeing the institution myself and having one-on-one conversations with many officers, there is no question that the situation there and elsewhere in the Department of Corrections is nearing a crisis stage due to the recent surge in inmate population.

Two weeks ago, Commissioner Lantz appeared before the Judiciary Committee in your place and told us that her department needs no additional resources in order to safely manage the population surge. I simply cannot see how that is true.

These conditions cannot be ignored. For the protection of the public and corrections staff, you must allow the front-line professionals in corrections and parole to tell state officials what they need to safely manage the inmate population and the offenders who are or who will be released into the community in the near and long term. We, in turn, must provide them with those resources.

Meanwhile (and there’s no link to this – surprise, surprise!), there are reports that there was a violent fight at Brooklyn Correctional last night that resulted in an inmate’s head being busted open. Inmates and COs have been warning that this overcrowding is creating a very volatile situation. Let’s hope someone takes heed before it turns ugly.

Or perhaps they should just look to this 2000 report prepared by our very own Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee, which concludes:

Prison overcrowding has a cyclical pattern in Connecticut — reaching a crisis point about every 10 years. The committee report showed most of the causes of prison overcrowding occurred outside the administration and jurisdiction of the Department of Correction and these complex issues and problems cannot be addressed by a single state agency. Specifically, the program review committee identified five main causes of prison overcrowding. They are:

  • Despite the decrease in arrest and crime rates, the number of offenders in prison or jail continued to increase due to the “war on drugs”, increased funding for police, increased role of victims and victim advocacy groups in the court process, added bed capacity in the correctional system, recidivism and technical violations of probation and parole, harsher penalties for certain types of crimes, and narrowed eligibility for community release and alternative sanction options.
  • Convicted inmates were remaining incarcerated for a greater portion of their court-imposed prison sentences as a result of the shift from an indeterminate to a determinate sentencing structure, elimination of “good time”, creation of time-served standards for parole eligibility, and the enactment of several “truth in sentencing” initiatives.
  • The aggressive “tough on crime” approach supported by the legislature and adopted by the executive and judicial branches allows the criminal justice system to narrow its use of discretion and take a more conservative and less controversial approach to punishment.
  • A lack of prison beds, especially high security and pre-trial beds, forced DOC to operate at capacity.
  • Poor planning and a lack of an accurate population projection and offender needs analysis contributed to the cycle of overcrowding and hampered DOC’s efforts to adequately plan for new or expanded facilities.

In reviewing options available to manage and control growth of the inmate population, the committee found Connecticut cannot build its way out of a prison overcrowding crisis. However, prison expansion is one model to address prison overcrowding. This strategy has been Connecticut’s primary response to prison overcrowding over the past 20 years. It is the simplest but least effective and most expensive approach. Services in this model are concentrated primarily on the small percent (25 percent) of the offender population in prison.

If legislators are truly interested in the “best solution”, then they should perhaps look to the current overcrowding problems in Texas, wonderfully covered by Grits for Breakfast [latest post here].

The full press release is after the jump, if you’re interested.

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Monday morning jumpstart

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Another Monday, another weekend full of interesting reads.

  • Think that person you e-mail is real? Think again.
  • CTLP writes about David Pollitt and highlights the use of fear.
  • The National Institute of Justice’s latest journal includes this article entitled “Police Lineups: Making Eyewitness Identification More Reliable”. [H/T: CDW]
  • Bennett informs us that there still are lawyers who use the barter system.
  • Grits is conducting an informal poll on what, if any, sanction Texas CCA judge Keller should receive [backgrounder here].
  • Sui Generis is holding a “Best of NY Blawgs” contest.
  • Infinity Ranch is grappling with whether felony murder is applicable when the decedent is one of the participants.
  • Blonde Justice is frustrated over dealing with a new client in private practice.
  • Ruth loves Law and Order. Do you?
  • Where the hell is 123txpublicdefender123?
  • Sanchovilla puts his MySpace investigatorial skills to use.
  • Stephen Gustitis talks about reciprocity with juries.

As usual, if I missed anything, leave a link in the comments.

The day the law almost died: the David Pollitt story

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Connecticut was fast becoming a scary place to live. As yesterday’s post shows, residents of a small section of Southbury, a suburban town in Connecticut, were becoming increasingly concerned and paranoid with the news that one of their own was about to take in her brother – a convicted sexual offender – upon his release from prison. Mr. David Pollitt is scheduled to be released tomorrow after serving the full length of his sentence and will embark on a torturous journey of five years’ probation.

Residents of that nook of Southbury, rightly concerned and wrongly outraged, embarked on a full-press lobbying of the Governor to keep this from happening. Scarily, she bit. This morning, she wrote a letter to Attorney General Blumenthal asking him if Mr. Pollitt could be confined beyond his legal discharge date.

While recognizing that Mr. Pollitt has served his sentence and that his release and probation are statutorily governed, we also have a duty to ensure that we have left no stone unturned in safeguarding the safety and welfare of the Southbury residents. Numerous children and elderly residents reside in the Fox Run Drive neighborhood. I am asking that you explore immediately the possibility of filing a motion in Superior Court seeking the delay of Mr. Pollitt’s release. This additional time will allow all interested parties to carefully review all possible safety measures that may be implemented to protect the Southbury residents.

There are several, several problems with this request that I intended to outline in full detail, but in light of recent happenings, will only mention briefly:

First, this exhibits a blatant disregard for law in the State of Connecticut and flouts the Constitutions of both the Constitution State and the United States of America. I cannot imagine that Gov. Rell is not adequately advised as to the illegality of her request.

Second, assuming that she is advised as to the illegality of her request, this can be nothing but blatant political pandering. Which is abhorrable abhorrent. You do not play with people’s liberty to further your political goal.

Third, she makes this request of Attorney General Blumenthal, who has zero standing to request changes in the conditions of probation. An appropriate request would have been one made to Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane, who I suspect might not have indulged her to the extent the AG did by filing this motion.

Fourth, her request indicates that the State agencies have not had time to evaluate the impact of his release into the community and make adequate preparations to safeguard the community. What, 24 years wasn’t enough to get their act together? [By all accounts, let it be noted, probation has done an excellent job of going out to the community and spending a significant amount of time attempting to assuage the fears of the residents. Paranoia, however, cannot be easily reassured.]

Finally, a half-way house or an in-patient facility is not an alternative form of probation, but an alternative form of incarceration. Mr. Pollitt has fully satisfied his period of incarceration and any such admission to a half-way house or in-patient facility would be the equivalent of keeping him in a correctional facility.

So, as you might know by now, AG Blumenthal did file a motion in New London Superior Court this afternoon, which was, by all accounts, summarily dismissed by Judge Susan Handy. She may not realize it (she probably does), but she has single-handedly saved the rule of law in the “Constitution” state.

Judge Susan Handy told Attorney General Richard Blumenthal that he has no standing to intervene in the case. Blumenthal said he was acting on behalf of Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

[She] said 54-year-old David Pollitt has served his sentence and is entitled to his freedom.

If this motion were granted (or if it is granted on appeal – if they appeal), it will mark the end of the rule of law in Connecticut. What it will signal is that the State has the power to confine individuals beyond their legal sentences for specious reasons.

Gov. Rell has just issued a statement in light of Judge Handy’s ruling:

“I am very disappointed that this reasonable and prudent request was rejected,” she said. “Public safety is our top priority — I empathize completely with the residents of the Fox Run Drive community [in Southbury], and despite this decision I want them to know that everything possible is being done to safeguard their homes and families.

Forgive me if I scoff. I’m sure every community in the State has received such assurances when sex offenders are released to them on a weekly basis.

Why I hate statutory rape laws

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Update: aTypical Joe nicely ties this story in with William Saletan’s piece in Slate last week about “the age of consent” and emotional development of teenagers in which he offered some concrete proposals to revamp sex laws. Read ‘em both. Saletan concludes with:

I’d draw the object line at 12, the cognitive line at 16, and the self-regulatory line at 25. I’d lock up anyone who went after a 5-year-old. I’d come down hard on a 38-year-old who married a 15-year-old. And if I ran a college, I’d discipline professors for sleeping with freshmen. When you’re 35, “she’s legal” isn’t good enough.

What I wouldn’t do is slap a mandatory sentence on a 17-year-old, even if his nominal girlfriend were 12. I know the idea of sex at that age is hard to stomach. I wish our sexual, cognitive, and emotional maturation converged in a magic moment we could call the age of consent. But they don’t.

Original: It’s because of stories like this. There are several things about this that really piss me off. First, the accused is the 18-year old boyfriend of a 15-year old girl. However, the story refers to him as a “man” and the “victim” as a girl. Second, the sex was consensual. Third, the people with whom the 18-year old boy was living make it seem like he stabbed them in the back.

Police Chief James Strillacci says he’s upset that a young man he and his wife tried to help allegedly took advantage of their generosity.

The Strillaccis had taken Keith Armstrong into their home this past summer to give him temporary shelter from a broken home, according to the chief.

Taken advantage of their generosity? By having sex with his girlfriend? Huh? He’s an 18-year old boy with a girlfriend. What did you expect?

To those of you who might remember that Connecticut recently changed its “Romeo and Juliet” law to exempt from prosecution those teens who were within three years of each other, the story is quick to point out that the boy is 3 years and fifteen days older than the girl. Clearly those fifteen days make the difference between a predator and just kids having sex.

Perhaps the prosecutor will be sensible enough to nolle the charges; otherwise this kid is looking at jail time and lifetime registration as a sex offender.

How did the cops find out? The girl’s step-father. Parenting by prosecution.

These laws are just plain stupid. I’m pretty sure this is exactly what the legislature intend to preclude from prosecution and yet here we are.

Breaking point: Koppel on overcrowding

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This Sunday, Ted Koppel presents Breaking Point, a documentary on California’s prison overcrowding problem. It will air on the Discovery Channel at 9pm. From the highlights:

What does the California prison system have in common with Harvard University? It costs precisely as much to house, feed and guard one prisoner for one year in a California state prison as tuition, meals and housing cost for a student enrolled for one academic year at Harvard. As far as California taxpayers are concerned, it gets even worse. Their prison system is so overcrowded that it’s reached a breaking point. Either the state finds a long-term solution or the federal courts have warned they’ll begin ordering the release of inmates, just to ease the crush.

In this two-hour broadcast, Ted Koppel examines how California got to this point and presents an inside view of the crisis through in-depth interviews with inmates, guards and prison officials at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville.

Designed to accommodate no more than 100,000 inmates, California’s prisons now hold 173,000, each at an annual cost of $43,000. How did things get so out of control? Mandatory sentencing is a big part of the answer. When California voters threw their support behind a get-tough-on-crime bill that came to be known as “Three Strikes and You’re Out,” the state prison system filled up and is now overflowing.

You can get the quick facts,  view prison portraits, explore CSP – Solano or watch a video from inside the prison.

Prison overcrowding presents several problems aside from safety and security of staff and inmates. More often than not, overcrowding leads to inmates being forced to sleep in gyms, halls, classrooms and day-rooms. This occupies space reserved for rehabilitative programs. I’m not sure these programs continue or that inmates have recreation areas where they can blow off steam or learn a trade or get an education. It truly is counterproductive.

Hopefully the legislators on Connecticut’s Judiciary Committee will watch this 2-hour program on Sunday.

Prison overcrowding? No problem.

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Very little has been reported thus far on today’s emergency judiciary committee meeting on the parole ban. The only thing out there is this meager story by Channel 3.

From what I can gather, Commissioner Lantz doesn’t seem to think there’s a problem.

The state’s prisons commissioner said she doesn’t need more staff or new prisons to handle any influx of inmates from the temporary ban of parole for violent offenders.

Lantz said an additional 228 beds are being added. Also, she said the corrections officers are trained to handle fluctuating prison populations. Currently, there are about 300 portable beds set up on gym floors and in function rooms.

There are currently 19,000 inmates in Connecticut’s prisons — 2,000 more than what the system was designed for.

Nope, nothing to see. Move along.

I guess I’m still surprised that the legislature has no problem with the Governor effectively overriding a statute.

Monday Morning Jumpstart

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It’s just another Manic Monday.

  • CT seems to be a bad place to be a teacher. Karoli has all the details about a teacher forced to resign because a girl’s parents didn’t like his choice of summer reading.
  • More than 20% of CT inmates have moderate to severe mental illnesses. More on this later.
  • Matlock the Republican creates a taxonomy of lawyers using baseball terms.
  • S.cotus took the new naturalization test last week and followed it up with a test of his own.
  • The Saucy Vixen gave us a glimpse into dealing with her clients (and the post spawned some interesting comments).
  • Anne Reed’s Deliberations took a look at the idea of a national jury pool.
  • Of Counsel has been all over the AJC’s coverage of the death penalty.
  • Speaking of which, CDW’s weekly roundup is here.
  • Grits brings the good news that the Dallas PD will participate in a study of lineup procedures.

If I missed anything, leave a link in the comments!