Union Calls for More Staffing at Conn. Prisons

"If we don't recognize the heroes of this pandemic, we will run out of heroes," said Kenneth Hayward, a correctional officer at the Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown during a virtual news conference held by his union Tuesday.

Three locals of AFSCME Council 4, representing a significant number of state Department of Correction staff members, held the news conference to call attention to staffing shortages that they say are forcing them to work mandatory 16-hour days and to suffer sleep deprivation.

The department had 406 staff vacancies, or about 9.5%, as of July 16, according to a department document supplied by the union during the news conference.

A July 26 memo from William Mulligan, the deputy commissioner of the department, to Commissioner Angel Quiros, shows that 397 staff members are eligible to retire by next July 1.

What this translates into for department employees is long hours that threaten to grow even longer.

"Right now, no one is going to work for eight hours," said Brian Larson, a correctional officer at the Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire.

When an employee has to work a 16-hour day, Larson said, after accounting for time spent preparing meals for the next day and handling other personal tasks, the person may end up getting 4 1/2 hours' sleep — "only to repeat the process three days in a row.

"This equates to 48 hours working in a three-day period with sleep deprivation taking its toll," he added.

"Staff shortages are risky for staff," said Michael Vargo, the president of AFSCME Local 1565. "There is more chance for injury on the job and volatile situations to break out."

Since November, Hayward said, 21 staff members have quit jobs at Garner, which specializes in treatment of male inmates with mental health problems.

"I've never seen this before," he said, noting that state jobs are desirable in many ways, with good benefits.

He acknowledged that some of the staff members who have left went to the state police.

Collin Provost, the president of AFSCME Local 391, called it "unsustainable" for prison staff members to continue to work 16-hour shifts in a dangerous job "with high rates of mental health stressors."

Vargo complained that there has been "little to no movement" in union contract negotiations.

"And our members have not received hazard pay even though our state received federal funds intended for this purpose," he added.

Amanda Tower, a correctional officer at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, said Gov. Ned Lamont's administration has been refusing to budge in the contract talks, "even asking for concessions from employees who they hailed as heroes, who kept critical services operating 24/7 during a global public health crisis."

Vargo said more 1,400 department staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. Most have recovered, with 34 staff members currently listed as "recovering" from the disease in online state statistics.

The department recently experienced its first staff death from COVID-19, but it wasn't clear whether the correctional officer who died — Quentin Foster, 45, who was assigned to the Willard-Cybulski Correctional Institution in Enfield — contracted the disease on the job. He tested positive for COVID after returning from travel "down south," according to Karen Martucci, the department's chief spokeswoman.

The department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the issues raised at Tuesday's news conference.

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