A proposed community-justice center in Hartford, Conn., to treat nonviolent offenders has become controversial, with critics asking whether a 24-hour locked-down facility is needed, the Hartford Courant reported Aug. 10.The short-term residential facility would provide addiction education and treatment, as well as vocational and life-skills training to help offenders avoid relapse and recidivism.
"We're developing a strategy that involves the community," said Correction Commissioner Theresa Lantz. "We're trying to provide inmates with support, not just opening the doors and throwing them out. So they can move from incarceration and dependency to being able to function on their own."
Education and Health Centers of America is one of the bidders for the treatment and job training center. The organization recently lost a contract for a similar center for women in Niantic because of aggressive lobbying.
The company is at the center of the controversy for using the same aggressive tactics for the proposed Hartford center, which will serve 500 nonviolent male inmates who are either preparing for their release or in violation of probation. The company has contacted activists and residents of the North Meadows neighborhood, where the facility would be built, to arrange for meetings at a local restaurant and a tour of its New Jersey facility.
But some residents and advocates aren't convinced about the center's purpose and location.
"A 500-bed facility is not a community-justice center. It's more like a prison," said Nora Duncan, program-services coordinator for Connecticut Association of Nonprofits. "Community work happens at the community level, and it's very difficult to do when there's 500 inmates involved. Smaller programs spread throughout the community, like halfway houses, are more appropriate and would better assist the inmates in returning back to their actual communities."
"The whole thing seems to be a sweetheart deal," said Gene Tewksbury, president of the Connecticut Correctional Employees Union, AFSCME local branch 1565. "It seems to me it would be cheaper for the state to do this by itself, in-house. In fact, these are jobs we already do now. Some legislators bought into the goods they were sold. They were promised job training and substance-abuse treatment, but you just can't provide both in one facility."
"The smaller the halfway house, the better," he added, "because the staff is going to be more interactive. If you have 25 inmates, you know them very well and can provide the needed services. But if you have a hundred or more, you're just pushing numbers around. In a huge facility, there is no rehabilitation."
Ron Cretaro, executive director of Connecticut Association of Nonprofits, added, "The idea is to support community alternatives to prison. But a community-justice center represents the continuation of institutionalization."
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