Hartford Correctional Center

Hartford Correctional Center is one of 18 correctional facilities in Connecticut, United States. The correctional center is located in Hartford, Connecticut. The facility was opened in 1977, with its first warden being Richard Wezowicz.

Hartford Correctional Center
Location in Connecticut
LocationHartford, Connecticut
Coordinates41.793333°N 72.661111°W / 41.793333; -72.661111
StatusOperational
Security classLevel 4 (High)
Capacity984
Population918 (as of February 1, 2018[1])
Opened1977 (1977)
Managed byConnecticut Department of Correction
WardenNed McCormick
Street address177 Weston Street
CityHartford
CountyHartford
State/provinceCT
ZIP Code06120
Websitehttps://portal.ct.gov/DOC/Facility/Hartford-CC
Notable prisoners
Ravi Shankar, Eyad Alrababah

In March of 2016, the participatory budgeting organization Hartford Decide$ set up a voting location at the facility so inmates could vote on how the city's money is spent.[2][3]

Poet and former professor of English at Central Connecticut State University Ravi Shankar spent time at the facility, writing an op-ed about his experiences for the Hartford Courant.[4]

In 2017, Frontline and The New York Times collaborated on a PBS documentary called Life on Parole, which featured a former inmate of the correctional center, Errol Brantley, Jr., and his struggles while on parole.[5][6]

Controversies

In 1980, the correctional center was sued by a group of pre-trial detainees and inmates for exposure to tuberculosis and other transmissible pathogens and overcrowding.[7][8] In the case, Lareau v. Manson, the District Court of Connecticut found that the facility's overcrowding violated the inmates and detainees' due process rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and that the lack of screening procedures for contagious diseases violated all the facility's inmate's constitutional rights.[8]

Eyad Alrababah was arrested following the September 11 attacks and held as a material witness in the facility after voluntarily contacting the FBI to offer information. He was held at the correctional center for about twenty days in solitary confinement, was strip- and cavity-searched multiple times, and was not brought before a judge until a month later, according to Human Rights Watch.[9]

In 2016, one of the facility's correctional officers were charged with two counts of sexually assaulting inmates.[10]

References
  1. Average Confined Inmate Population and Legal Status (pdf) (Report). Connecticut Department of Correction. February 1, 2018.
  2. Schoenfeld, Samantha (2016-03-30). "Hartford inmates get chance to vote on improvement projects for city". FOX 61. Archived from the original on 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  3. Vella, Vinny (2016-11-10). "'Hartford Decides' Begins 2nd Year As Residents Pick Community Projects". Hartford Courant. Archived from the original on 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  4. Shankar, Ravi (2014-07-11). "Professor Ravi Shankar: the eight things I learned in jail". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  5. Dewan, Shaila (2017-07-17). "What Statistics Can't Explain About Life on Parole". FRONTLINE. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  6. Dewan, Shaila (2017-07-16). "She's His Rock. His Parole Officer Won't Let Him See Her". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  7. Farmer, Paul (2010). "Cruel and unusual: drug-resistant tuberculosis as punishment". Partner to the poor: a Paul Farmer reader. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 218. ISBN 9780520257115. OCLC 613206365.
  8. Lareau v. Manson, 507 F. Supp. 1177 (D. Conn. 1980).
  9. "US: Misuse of the Material Witness Statute". Human Rights Watch. 2011-01-28. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  10. "Connecticut correctional officer due in court in prisoner assault case". New Haven Register. 2016-03-13. Archived from the original on 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
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