Northern Correctional Institute

Northern Correctional Institute is a maximum security prison located in the town of Somers in the northern part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The prison houses the state's Death Row inmates and convicts serving long sentences for violent crimes. As of July 1, 2007 the prison has 453 inmates. The prison is controlled by 310 personnel from the Connecticut Department of Corrections under the supervision of Warden Jeffrey E. McGill and Deputy Wardens Terence Rose, Valerie Light and Neftali Rodriguez. [ [http://www.ct.gov/doc/cwp/view.asp?a=1499&q=265436 Connecticut Department of Corrections, Northern Correctional Institute Website] ]

History

It was completed in January 1995 and received its first inmates in March 1995.

John J. Armstrong

Before John J. Armstrong became the assistant director of operations of American prisons in Iraq he was the commissioner of Connecticut's Department of Corrections from 1995- 2003. Like Stewart and DeLand, Armstrong was appointed to his post by a Republican governor, John G. Rowland, who has since been impeached. Governor Rowland complained that prisons in Connecticut resembled "Club Med-style" resorts; he wanted a commissioner that would toughen up the prisons that, he claimed, had gone soft under the previous commissioner.

Armstrong vowed to put security above all else, and, during his first months in office, he oversaw the opening of Connecticut's first "Supermax" prison, Northern Correctional Institution. The Connecticut Department of Corrections website describes Northern as a "highly structured, secure and humane environment," while a representative from National Prison Project called Northern a "high-tech dungeon" in a 1996 Hartford Courant article.

Northern is an autocratic guard's dream: prisoners locked up in their closet- sized cells for 23 hours a day, and almost everything can be operated by remote control. Though the prison was intended to house only prisoners who pose "a threat to the safety and security of the community, staff and other inmates," many prisoners were sent there on minor offenses, like participating in a work stoppage protest.

During Armstrong's command, it wasn't necessary to travel to Northern to find examples of abuse. In a 2001 Amnesty International report studying abuse of women in prisons, Connecticut was used as an example of how not to treat female prisoners. At the York Correctional Institution in Niantic, there were numerous allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct by male guards against female prisoners, including sexual assault and voyeurism.

In 1999, Timothy Perry, a 21-year-old mentally ill prisoner, was beaten to death by guards at Hartford Correctional Center. Perry put up no resistance when guards entered his cell and beat him to death. To cover up the murder, the guards continued to act as if Perry was alive and put him in four-point restraints. A nurse even injected Perry's corpse with Thorazine, a psychotropic drug that he was allergic to. At no time did anyone bother to call a doctor or to check if Perry was breathing. All was caught on film.

None of the staff involved in Perry's murder were disciplined. The state of Connecticut paid $2.9 million to Perry's estate for the murder.

To ease the burden of overcrowding on the prison population, Armstrong initiated the exodus of 484 prisoners to Virginia's "Supermax" Wallens Ridge Prison in 1999. Some contended that it was principally minorities being sent to Wallens Ridge, but Armstrong maintained that the numbers being sent were representative of the prison population. As the prisoners settled in at Wallens Ridge, allegations of mistreatment began to fly. Yet these charges went ignored by Armstrong, and it was the prisoners who paid the price for his negligence.

In April 2000, guards at Wallens Ridge saw a prisoner in his cell jump from his top bunk. Four minutes later, the guards entered the cell of David Tracy, 20, and found that he had hung himself with his bed sheet. Tracy had been transferred to Wallens Ridge from Northern Correctional Institute with Connecticut officials knowing that the transfer would endanger both his mental health and life.

Before his transfer, Tracy had attempted suicide three times and even requested to be placed on suicide watch. As a result of his actions and mental illnesses, his mental health status had been classified as "Mental Health 4," the highest level possible. Wallens Ridge would not be able to meet Tracy's needs and Connecticut officials knew it. At Wallens Ridge, Tracy was not given frequent access to mental health staff and was not monitored.

Months after Tracy's suicide, James Lawrence Frazier, another transferred prisoner, went into a diabetic shock and was shocked repeatedly with 50,000 volts of a stun gun. Days later, Frazier died of heart failure. After two years, two deaths, an ACLU class action suit, and over 70 other lawsuits, the prisoners were brought back to Connecticut. Now, public attention was focused on the multiple charges of sexual harassment brought upon Armstrong and others by female prison employees.

Armstrong was implicated both directly and indirectly in sexual harassment. Female prison employees asserted that there was a sustained atmosphere of disrespect towards women in the department, with charges ranging from male guards watching pornographic movies while on duty to vandalism and theft of female employee's belongings.

In one incident, Deputy Warden Murdoch made explicit comments in front of 80 employees. He said that women are sensitive during "that time of the month" and that he would keep a box of underwear in his office in case any women had "an accident at work." At staff meetings, others made similar comments, and Armstrong was aware of and condoned the behavior.

When female employees would file sexual harassment complaints, many were called "snitches" or would face further retaliation from their harassers. Armstrong claimed that sexual harassment would not be tolerated within the department, but many of the perpetrators were never disciplined and were sometimes promoted.

While Armstrong left office in a cloud of controversy, it did not impact his ability to find employment with ICITAP.

In 1995, Connecticut's death row inmates were moved to the Northern Correctional Institution from the Osborn Correctional Institution where they were previously housed [Leah Caldwell of Prison Legal News where this article was first published of ] [http://www.nvo.com/solvayalumni/leahcaldwell/

February 1997 marked the arrival of the Chronic Disciplinary Unit.

November 1999 marked the arrival of the Special Risk Group Threat population.

In August 2000, Warden Larry J. Myers face was slashed by inmate John Barletta, leaving him seriously injured. Barletta was serving 60 years for a 1992 drive by shooting murder in Norwalk and Life in Prison Without Parole for the murder of his cellmate in 1999 at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown, Connecticut.

In November 2000, the Chronic Disciplinary Unit was removed from the facility.

In September 2004, the Chronic Disciplinary Unit was returned to Northern CI.

List of past wardens

*1995-1995 David May
*1995-1996 Robert Kupec
*1996-1999 Giovanny Gomez
*1999-2003 Larry J. Myers
*2003-2006 Wayne Choinski

References