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| Conn. Settles Prison Lawsuits For $2 Million |
| By Hartford Courant |
| Published: 03/19/2002 |
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Prisoners rights activist and some lawmakers say that the state's pending settlement with the families of two dead inmates supports their concerns about placing convicts out of state, and should lead to reconsideration of a proposal to transfer more inmates to Virginia. The state has agreed to pay almost $2 million to the families of Lawrence Frazier and David Tracy. The Frazier family is expected to receive about $1.1 million and Tracy's family should get about $750,000. Both men died at Wallens Ridge, a supermaximum security penitentiary in Big Stone Gap, Va. Frazier, a diabetic, died of heart failure after he was strapped down and repeatedly shocked by officers with a stun gun. Tracy, who suffered from mental illness, had only months remaining on his sentence when he hanged himself. Correction officials would not comment on the settlement, noting that it has not been finalized. But they said they still support the need to send inmates out of state as a remedy for crowding. Brian Garnett, the correction department director of communication, said the number of inmates in Connecticut prisons has increased by 78 percent since Jan. 1, 1991, and the inmate population is at an all-time high of 20,036 as of Friday. 'We've had 38 all-time highs since last July,' Garnett said. State Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, said the settlement proves that Gov. John G. Rowland and those who supported sending 500 inmates to Virginia in 1999 were wrong in arguing that the transfer was cheaper than keeping them here. Lawlor said aside from the cost of defending and settling the Tracy and Frazier lawsuits, the state has had to pay to defend some lawmakers, including himself, against a defamation suit filed by the warden of Wallens Ridge. It has also had to pay to send members of the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities to investigate allegations of abuse, and a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. All of the Connecticut inmates have since been moved to Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Va. Lawlor also questioned language in the contract that holds Connecticut responsible for any harm that comes to the inmates in Virginia. 'So whatever goes wrong, we pay the whole boat even if it's not our fault,' Lawlor said. 'And we didn't do anything wrong except to enter into a bad contract.' Judi Walters, an activist who has led numerous rallies against the transfers, said she believes the settlement proves that the state would save money in the long term by investing more in treatment programs and other alternatives to incarceration. 'We have over 20,000 people in prison, but they don't say how many of them are nonviolent drug offenders or mentally ill,' said Walters, co-founder of Friends and Families Who Care. 'So instead of building more prisons, we should be building facilities for them, and then leave the jail cells for the violent offenders.' |
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