Criminal justice reform advocates are criticizing delays filling a key position overseeing the Department of Correction.
Several lawmakers and members of the group Stop Solitary CT held a press conference Wednesday to urge state officials to install a new ombudsman to provide independent oversight of state prisons.
Lawmakers created the position last year. The person picked for the job will investigate complaints and evaluate conditions inside prison facilities.
A corrections ombudsman would not be new for the state. It had one from the 1970s, until 2010, when the state cut the office to save money, according to the Connecticut Mirror.
State Sen. Gary Winfield, a Democrat who represents New Haven and West Haven, said with the position still vacant, public accountability is lacking in the state Department of Correction.
“We have a system that is opaque not only to the public, (but) that's largely opaque even to people like myself,” said Winfield, Senate chairperson of the Judiciary Committee.
“And if it's opaque to me, we've got a problem," Winfield said, "because I am the oversight.”
Lawmakers passed a set of reforms to the corrections system last year, including measures that curtail the use of isolation, and establish mandatory time outside a cell for most people who are incarcerated.
The legislation also created a new Correction Advisory Committee, which was tasked with vetting and recommending candidates for the ombudsman position. Lawmakers envisioned the position would now be filled, and that the new ombudsman would file an initial report on conditions inside prison facilities by Dec. 1, 2023.
The Correction Advisory Committee posted a job description for the position on June 30, 2023 and accepted applications until Sept. 15. The group received 27 applications, and a smaller panel of committee members interviewed the eight strongest applicants between Oct. 25 and Nov. 2. The full committee then voted unanimously on Nov. 7 to recommend three finalists, who will advance to a public hearing.
Gov. Ned Lamont will decide who gets the job. Lawmakers must also approve the appointment.
Wednesday's call to action came after three prison guards were charged in court with assaulting an incarcerated man in September at Garner Correctional Institution, the correctional facility in Newtown.
According to court documents, camera footage from the facility shows two prison guards punching a man who they said threatened them and refused to go back to his prison cell. A third officer is accused of kicking the prisoner while he was on the floor.
The man appeared to have bruises and swelling on the right side of his face soon after the incident, according to an affidavit filed in court by state police.
Investigators concluded the three corrections officers used excessive force. They were charged with third degree assault, a misdemeanor. All three pleaded not guilty in court in November.
They were placed on administrative leave with pay two days after the incident, according to the Department of Correction.
Barbara Fair, from the group Stop Solitary CT, said the incident underscores the need to have an ombudsman in place.
Fair added that she herself might ultimately receive the appointment. She said she was selected as one of the finalists for the position.
As executive director of Stop Solitary CT, Fair championed legislation limiting solitary confinement, and pushed to reintroduce the ombudsman position.
“It’s been funded since 2022,” Fair said, referring to the money lawmakers previously made available to hire someone for the job.
“We are getting ready to go into 2024," she continued, "and we still don't have an independent person that's going to go inside the Department of Correction and probably put some kind of reduction in assaults that are happening.”
