"America's Most Wanted' inmate assaults two Garner officers Read more: http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/America-s-Most-Wanted-inmate-assaults-two-2825295.php#ixzz1l22MoZfS

NEWTOWN -- Two corrections officers were treated at Danbury Hospital on Sunday after they were assaulted by an inmate at Garner Correctional Center, State Police said.

David Bell, 25, who is serving a 85-year-sentence for murder, allegedly punched Corrections Officer Robert Marquis in the face during what a union official said was an unprovoked attack about 9:30 a.m.

The union official, who didn't want his name used, said Bell was leaving the shower room and approached the guard station, where the alleged assault occurred.

Marquis suffered injuries to his face and legs, and the second officer, Michael Pavia, was hurt in the struggle to subdue Bell.

Both men were treated at the hospital and released, according to state police at the Troop A barracks in Southbury.

Bell sustained injuries to the left side of his head and was taken to UConn Medical Center in Farmington. State police said they are applying for an arrest warrant charging Bell with first-degree assault of a corrections officer, disorderly conduct and interfering with an officer.

Bell was featured on the television program "America's Most Wanted" after police in Meriden found the body of 20-year-old Faye Bennett, who was six months pregnant, in a trash bag in September 2004. She had been stabbed and strangled to death.

Bell was convicted of the murder in 2006 and his girlfriend, Jennifer Helmedach, was found guilty of the crime a year later.

Read more: http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/America-s-Most-Wanted-inmate-assaults-two-2825295.php#ixzz1l22K3JrB

A Correction's Officer's Day

This is my life--A Correction's Officer's Day!!! We wish you knew how we feel when we walk through those gates and hear them lock behind us. How we feel when walking up a corridor, not knowing how many fights there will be that day. Maybe a stabbing, someone getting sliced from a razor, someone drunk from homemade alcohol, or high from drugs smuggled in. Will there be a staff assault today? Watching the inmates movements, plus watching out for other co-workers, like a nurse walking through the block, a counselor or unit manager, a coach or minister, a secretary, a librarian, or someone from the front office...they walk through not realizing how many inmates are watching them wondering how they could do them harm. We try to have their backs at all times. We work holidays, weekends and through most of our family functions. We come to work sick, so we can save our days to spend with our kids. Stress levels can run high, but we're pro's at hiding it. We don't bring our problems at home into work...no time for that crap. We don't make friends as Corrections Officers. When at work...we add to our family. We are like brothers...and sisters...arguments here and there, but in the end, just like family we have each others backs. As a Correction Officer, we try to keep the community safe from any escapes. As a Correction Officer, we try to keep each other safe. Even protecting inmates from inmates, it happens all the time. You never hear anything about our jobs, but it's time...if you are a Correction Officer, a family member of one, a friend of one or just know of one... share this in hopes of them coming home safe every day for their families.

Contraband Seized From Cheshire Prison

By CHRISTINE DEMPSEY, cdempsey@courant.com
The Hartford Courant
4:19 p.m. EST, November 16, 2011

CHESHIRE—
Illegal drugs and cell phones were found in the Cheshire Correctional Institution, and two state agencies are trying to found out why.

Two small packets of marijuana and four cell phones were confiscated from inmates during searches on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8, said Andrius Banevicius, a spokesman for the state Department of Correction. Prisoners are not allowed to have cell phones.
The correction department and the state police are investigating, state and union officials said Wednesday.

"At this point, we have no idea where it came from," said Lisamarie Fontano, president of the AFSCME Local 387, which represents correction officers. It wasn't clear if the contraband was brought into the building by visitors or staff, she said.

Fontano said she would get involved if a corrrection officer is suspected of bringing the items into the prison, she said.

"We have a zero tolerance for dirty staff," she said.

Brian Garnett, another correction spokesman, said it's too early to comment on the contraband because the criminal probe and internal investigation continue.

"We are working with the state police," he said.

Prison officials always are on the lookout for illegal items, he said.

"Contraband is something that we are constantly on the alert for, constantly searching for," Garnett said.

— Hillary Federico contributed to this report.

Union Files Injunction to Stop Prison Closing

Fight Erupts At Garner Correctional Institution; Six Staff Members Injured

By HILLARY FEDERICO,The Hartford Courant

NEWTOWN—

Six staff members at the Garner Correctional Institution were injured after responding to a fight among inmates Friday afternoon, a state Department of Correction spokesman said.

Most of the injuries reported were back and shoulder sprains, said Andrius Banevicus, spokesman for department. He added that state police are expected to press charges.  Around 12:15 p.m. the staff members were notified of a fight among a group of inmates in one of the prison's housing units. Banevicus said the fight was sparked by an inmate who had attacked another inmate with whom he had a previous dispute, as the group was being brought into the housing unit's showers.  A total of six inmates were involved in the fight, authorities said..

DOC Savings Plan Closes Enfield Correction Institution

by Hugh McQuaid | Jul 8, 2011 12:52pm

(8) Comments | Log in to Post a Comment
Posted to: Labor, Legal, State Budget, State Capitol, Enfield

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION PHOTO

Enfield Correctional Institution

Enfield Correction Institution will close on Oct. 1 if the plan Department of Correction Commissioner Leo Arnone submitted Friday is approved by the Office of Policy and Management.

The prison will follow Bergin Correctional Institution which is set to close on July 15.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy required the commissioners of all state agencies to submit a savings plan by Friday to help the administration come up with $1.6 billion to close the budget gap left by the failed concession package. The plans, submitted to Malloy’s Budget Director Benjamin Barnes today, will contain a total of somewhere around 6,500 layoffs and reductions in state programs and services.

Read the rest of the story by clicking here: http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/doc_savings_plan_closes_enfield_ci/#more

Official Asked To 'Stop Talking To The Press About SEBAC'

First let me reiterate my respect for Moises Padilla.  This letter is about fairness.  This was the equivalent of calling the 2000 presidential election before all the votes were counted.  This letter isn't about the Union losing dues because of layoffs, it's about saving jobs.  Until you have taken phone calls from Correctional Staff that are agonizing about being laid off, worried about their mortgage, providing for their families, or just plain surviving in a CT economy with 9.1% unemployment, please cut me some slack.  This letter was also about SAFETY in our facilities.  They are going to cut posts in the facilities.  We all know what is going to happen if they cut posts, prisons become even more dangerous.  Anyone that has read my blog knows it's all about safety, period.

Prison Union Official Asks Outspoken Moises Padilla To "Stop Talking To The Press About SEBAC'' - Padilla Says Yankee Institute Is A Scapegoat In Ongoing Union Battles

By 

Christopher Keating

Hartford Courant
  on June 30, 2011


The chief steward at the state's toughest prison is asking a fellow union official to tone down his criticism of the savings-and-concession deal reached with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Kevin Brace, the steward at the Northern Correctional Institute, wrote a letter to Moises Padilla, an outspoken union leader in Cheshire, to say that he should not have made critical comments before all of the correctional officers had voted in all union locals around the state.

"I believe our union made a huge mistake by voting the SEBAC agreement down,'' Brace wrote. "It was our members' self-imposed ignorance that kept them away from the informational meetings that we held. Meetings that if you had attended might have put your apprehensions to rest.''

Brace specifically complained that Padilla talked about the deal before the correctional officers in his union, Local 391 in northern Connecticut, had a chance to cast their ballots. As such, Brace said, "We never got a chance for a fair vote in our local.''

Brace added, "I am pleading with you to please stop talking to the press about SEBAC, and to let things work themselves out. I am not censoring your right to free speech. I am just pointing out to you that sometimes the best intentions don't always produce the best results. I shudder to think about all of my co-workers who are going to be without jobs and the impact that it will have on all of our safety. I am dreading the days that I will have to spend at Johnson Memorial Hospital comforting the victims and the families of these assaults. Because at the end of the day, what good is the money if you don't make it home to spent it?''

Padilla could not immediately be reached for a response to Brace's two-page letter, but he remained outspoken in a recent interview with Capitol Watch by ripping the SEBAC leadership for blaming the failure of the deal, in part, on the conservative Yankee Institute.

"The Yankee Institute had nothing to do with it,'' Padilla said. "I knew all along they were looking for a scapegoat, and they found one in the Yankee Institute. It's the joke around the institution. We blame everything on the Yankee Institute. It's a running joke now.''

Padilla says it is "an insult'' to the correctional officers to believe they could not make an independent decision and instead were being swayed by a small, conservative thinktank in Hartford that many of them had never heard of.

When asked if he believes that the SEBAC leaders had done an inadequate job in explaining the details and selling the agreement to the union members, Padilla said, "This is why they have egg all over their face. I would call it a miserable job at trying to portray what was in this agreement.''

He added, "In the end, shame on the governor and the legislature for passing the budget with a big unknown in it.''

Padilla continued to criticize the proposed changes in healthcare benefits for union members. He and other union members raised concerns about the state employees' healthcare being merged into the SustiNet healthcare plan, which was mentioned repeatedly in e-mails that were circulated around the state.

When told that Malloy had explicitly and strongly denied that the state employees' plan had anything to do with SustiNet, Padilla said, "The members don't believe it. I personally don't believe it. I'm not calling the governor a liar. We don't want it.''