LAST STATE INMATES BACK FROM VIRGINIA

The last 57 Connecticut inmates jailed out of state returned last weekend,
marking the end of a tumultuous five-year experiment that resulted in
numerous unforeseen expenses, lawsuits and the deaths of two inmates.

Citing an increase in its own inmate population, the Virginia Department of
Corrections, which housed about 500 Connecticut inmates, canceled its
contract with Connecticut earlier this year and insisted that all
Connecticut inmates be moved by the end of the year.

The prison population in Connecticut fell by almost 1,000 this year,
according to federal statistics, although the return of the inmates means
the system is still crowded, said Brian Garnett, director of external
affairs for the Connecticut Department of Correction.

For five years, until a new prison overcrowding law reversed the trend this
summer, Connecticut was laying off probation officers. About one-third of
the state's probation officers were laid off, said state Rep. Michael
Lawlor, D-East Haven. The increase in caseloads forced officers to send
more offenders back to prison for technical violations like failing to keep
a current address, he said.

About 13 percent of all inmates are in jail for probation violations.

After passage of the bill in May, the state rehired all the probation
officers and added additional officers, said Lawlor, who is the co-chair of
the Judiciary Committee. The smaller caseloads allow officers to spend more
time with each offender, decreasing the chances of someone being sent back
to prison for a technical violation.

The Board of Parole, formerly a separate entity, became a part of the DOC
as well.

"It gave them a lot more staffing and a lot more resources," Lawlor said.
"The old Board of Parole seemed to have a hard time making decisions and
placing inmates into the community."

The DOC is still developing new re-entry programs that help offenders get
jobs and places to live, which is also helping to reduce the prison
population, Garnett said.

A support network has decreased recidivism, offering more long-term
savings, he said.

"Having them back in Connecticut puts them much closer to their support
mechanisms," he said. "The stronger the support mechanisms are, the better
their chances at succeeding when they are released, which will lead to
long-term money savings."

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said in August that all inmates would be incarcerated in
state, reversing a plan by former Gov. John Rowland to send 2,000 inmates
to prisons out of state.

Rowland sent about 500 inmates to a maximum-security prison in Big Stone
Gap, Va., in 1999 in hopes of reducing prison overcrowding and saving
money. Connecticut spends about $76 a day per inmate, while Virginia
charged the state $64 a day, Garnett said.

Inmate lawsuits and the cost of travel to and from Virginia made some
officials question whether the state was really saving money.

When one Connecticut inmate committed suicide in Virginia and another died
after corrections officers used a stun gun on him, the state of Connecticut
was responsible for the $1.9 million in legal settlements with the
families, Lawlor said.

Connecticut DOC hired Families in Crisis, a Hartford organization, to
transport families of offenders to Virginia every month, said Sue Quinlan
of Families in Crisis.

"We ended up limiting it to four people a family because we always had a
waiting list," she said.

It also cost the state as much as $2,000 to send public defenders to
Virginia each time they needed to speak with inmates who had appeals pending.

While the financial toll often came under fire, the emotional toll on the
inmates was criticized as well.

At Wallens Ridge, the maximum-security prison, Connecticut inmates often
complained about abuse and racism from the officers hired to watch them.
About 75 percent of Connecticut inmates initially sent to Virginia were
black or Hispanic. Big Stone Gap's population was about 3 percent black,
according to Charles Miller, then the head of an area housing authority.

"When you have black and Latino inmates and white guards with Confederate
flag bumper stickers on their cars, you're asking for trouble," Lawlor said.