Daft
ENFIELD PRISON/TOWN LIAISON COMMITTEE
MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING
March 10, 2010
CALL TO ORDER
A Regular Meeting of the Enfield Prison/Town Liaison Committee was held in the Enfield Room at the Enfield Town Hall on Wednesday, March 10, 2010. Chairman Nowak called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Present from the Town of Enfield were: Chairman Tophie Nowak, Councilman Cynthia Mangini, Kenneth Edgar, Carmella Brennan, Nelson Rodriguez, Captain Gary Collins, Councilman Kenneth Nelson and Representative Karen Jarmoc arrived at 7:12 pm.
Present from the Department of Corrections were: Warden Esther Torres, Warden Edward Maldonado, and Warden Christine Whidden arrived at 7:12 p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Chairman Tophie Nowak reviewed the minutes from September 9, 2009. Kenneth Edgar made a motion to pass the minutes from September. Warden Torres seconded the motion and they were passed unanimously.
OLD BUSINESS
Report of Population Counts
Current Qrt. Past Qrt.
Warden Torres Willard Cybulski Correctional Institute 1154 1157
Warden Maldonado Enfield Correctional Institute 723 723
Warden Whidden Carl Robinson Correctional Institute 1486 1452
Report of Chairman
Other than the tour as previously discussed at the last meeting and the reports on drills and events that have taken place, Chairman Nowak had no new business to discuss.
Update of Notification System
Chairman Nowak stated the notifications have been less frequent than before. Warden Maldonado stated they are supposed to occur every second Thursday of the month. Chairman Nowak stated it seems to be on a less frequent basis than that. The Chairman questioned if that was a change that was made somewhere else and not with the committee. She explained that the importance for the Notification system testing is to test the lines to make sure they are free during drills and emergencies for the folks on the committee and the people that live around the prison itself so they can be aware of what is going on. Warden Maldonado is going to check because he believes the emergency plan calls for a test once a month.
Review of Significant Incidents or Policy Changes
Enfield – Has been relatively quiet incident wise. There has been a lot of restructuring of duties due to loss of staffing. They have been focusing on leadership/supervisory training. There have been about 3 or 4 drills from July through December. They have revamped the facility sanitation plan and doubled the square footage of the garden from 4,500 square feet to 9,000 square feet. As the American Heart Association Coordinator for the DOC, the facility donated $5, 407 to the American Heart Association a good part of that came from the inmate population. The department received an award for the third highest donator. The facility has also raised approximately $10,000 from the staff that they have donated to other various charities from July 2009 until March 2010.
Willard/Cybulski - Community detail (December – March) is working at Crescent Lake cleaning up the beach and raking the leaves. Carmella Brennan requested that the inmates cut the grass at the beach. They are expanding the garden program and they would like to grow pumpkins to donate to the Town of Enfield’s Pumpkin festival in the fall. They had a GED graduation that graduated 16 inmates as well as a Tier 2 graduation (which is a substance abuse program) where they graduated 41 inmates. They contained all of the inmates with a flu-like/stomach virus to certain dorms and were able to sanitize the facility a couple of weeks before. They also had two unexpected deaths of staff members in their facilities in the past couple of months which they have been doing some fund raising for their families.
Carl Robinson – They had a simulation with Enfield Police Department and Shaker Pines Fire Department. They did have some media attention because they had some roads blocked off. They intend on bringing their special operations group. The rate of incidents has been very low.
NEW BUSINESS
Carmella Brennan questioned why they took the sub-station down on Taylor road and if it will be replaced.
Chairman Nowak questioned Warden Whidden if the brick building that use to house teens was still used. Warden Whidden informed her that certification of occupancy has lapsed, but when the quads opened up, those inmates where actually brought in the perimeter. It is still owned by Carl Robinson.
Chairman Nowak heard they were closing some of the prisons further south and wanted to know if that would impact the population counts of the Enfield prisons. Warden Whidden informed her it was a level 2 facility in Cheshire and if it was going to affect them it would have already. Most of the inmates were already absorbed either by taken by other prisons or released into the community (previously community release approved). The populations in the Connecticut prisons have recently decreased due to increased inmate rehabilitation programs, so the closing of the Cheshire facility was not a burden on other prisons. The courts have also increased the video hearings and teleconference hearings so the transportation of prisoners is less frequent therefore safer and more efficient.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Chairman Nowak stated the next meeting is scheduled for June 9, 2010 at the Carl Robinson Cottage.
OPEN FORUM AND PUBLIC PARICIPATION
Representative Karen Jarmac informed the committee the FOI (Freedom of Information) bill has passed in the house and is going to the senate. On Tuesday, Public Safety voted on a minimum two year sentence for an assault upon an office.
ADJOURNMENT
Chairman Nowak made a motion to adjourn, Kenneth Edgar seconded the motion, and it was passed unanimously. The meeting stood adjourned at 7:47 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Alexis Alvarado
Recording Secretary |