Public Defense

Denial is not a river in Egypt

By Gideon

Allegations of prison overcrowding and inhumane treatment of inmates abound and yet the American Idol Governor continues to turn a blind eye. Take this latest lawsuit for example. Two inmates at Cheshire Correctional filed a lawsuit claiming that they were forced to defecate and urinate in plastic bags because of the severe overcrowding problem.

In the lawsuit, the men say they were let out of the locked day room ? designed as a place to read or watch television, not sleep ? once per night to use the bathroom, according to their suit. In intervening hours, they have used plastic bags to urinate or defecate, they claim, and suffer from bladder problems as a result of having to hold their wastes.

The Governor’s response was more of the same:

Brian Garnett, a spokesman for the Department of Correction, said he could not comment on pending litigation, but said the state’s prisons are “orderly, humane and safe.”

DOC Commissioner Theresa Lantz has insisted that the prison system can absorb spikes in population, a position that frustrated the correction officers’ union and certain legislators last year when she refused to put a number on the prison system’s capacity.

A few weeks ago I heard about two separate assaults on correctional officers, but couldn’t find any news coverage of it.

This is a real problem, folks. It’s about time DOC did something about it.

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Full post as published by A Public Defender on March 11, 2008 (boomark / email).