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| Five Conn. DOC Workers Disciplined in Seperate Misconduct Probes |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 08/19/2002 |
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State Correction Department officials in Connecticut have fired two male prison workers and placed three top-ranking supervisors on leave in separate misconduct investigations. The two male workers were fired for having inappropriate relationships with female inmates, The Day of New London reported. Three supervisors at the York Correctional Institution, the state's only prison for women, were placed on administrative leave while officials investigate a birthday party that included a cake shaped like male genitalia. The disciplinary actions came only days after 15 female prison officers filed a lawsuit claiming that state Correction Commissioner John Armstrong and the Correction Department foster a work environment that tolerates and rewards sexual harassment. Department spokesmen have said repeatedly that the agency does not tolerate such harassment. One of the fired employees, Richard Garofalo, a laundry supervisor at York, filed a grievance about his termination Monday through his union, the union's chief steward, Joseph Barry, told The Day. Barry said he believed the relationship between Garofalo and a former inmate began after she was released from York and was on probation, but still technically under the care of the Department of Correction. The second fired employee, correction officer Adam McMahon, was terminated Aug. 6 on grounds that he engaged in an inappropriate relationship, or ''undue familiarity,'' with a female inmate, the department confirmed. It is illegal for prison staff to have sex with inmates, even if it is consensual. In the other investigation, Lt. Patrick Hensch is accused of bringing a penis-shaped cake to York to celebrate the birthday of a fellow supervisor, The Day reported, citing sources it did not identify. Hensch, Major Lora A. Castronova and Capt. Wayne Ford were placed on administrative leave, the newspaper reported. ''It wasn't just a cake vaguely resembling a penis,'' said a union official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ''They detailed it. To bring that into a prison where all the inmates are women, and a lot of the staff are women, and considering all the directives from John Armstrong about sexual harassment ... For them to bring it in at that point, it borders on absurdity.'' ''Any incident like this, we have a zero tolerance policy,'' Karen Oien, a department spokeswoman, said. Barry said he was disappointed in the department's inability to tackle the problem of inappropriate relations between officers and inmates. ''Why isn't the department doing something to address the issue?'' Barry said. ''It's getting out of hand and nobody is doing anything.'' Oien said that kind of behavior ''is not something that is tolerated by our agency.'' She said that every member of the department undergoes six weeks of pre-service training. Four hours of that training deals with cross-gender supervision with inmates, she said. |
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