Suzio attacks prison credits program, Bartolomeo critical of 'violent pedophile' source

10-30-2014 Connecticut:

CHESHIRE — Standing in front of the Cheshire Correctional Institution Wednesday afternoon, two Republicans again called for the governor and state Department of Correction to suspend the risk reduction earned credit program and investigate alleged flaws.

Len Suzio, a former state senator hoping to regain the 13th District seat, said the “system is being manipulated.”

Standing beside him was state Sen. Joe Markley, R-Southington, who said the program needs to be reevaluated.

Both Republicans have vocally opposed the prison credit program since it was approved in 2011. Under the program, inmates can earn credits toward early release through good behavior and participating in anti-recidivism activities.

They said they had heard from inmates and correction officers who described problems with the implementation.

Markley and Suzio said they visited Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers last Friday to speak with one inmate and handed out two letters they received from an inmate and a former inmate outlining concerns.

Suzio said he has spoken to several prison guards who believe the program is ineffective. On Wednesday, Suzio and Markley said they couldn’t reveal their sources.

But Suzio’s opponent Democratic state Sen. Dante Bartolomeo said she had obtained information on the inmate Suzio and Markley met with in Somers, calling him “a violent pedophile.” While she said she also believes the prison credit program is flawed, Bartolomeo voiced concerns that two Republican candidates were consulting with an inmate with that kind of record.

Karen Martucci, acting director of the DOC external affairs division, said the inmate Suzio and Markley interviewed “has an extensive criminal history record totaling over 30 arrests and most recently incarcerated for his third parole violation based on repetitive lies and manipulative tactics, proven as failure to comply with parole conditions while under supervision in the community.”

He’s also a registered sex offender, accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old in 1989 when he was 17, according to the DOC. A year earlier, the man was charged with risk of injury to a minor for physically abusing two boys, ages 3 and 7. The inmate’s recent criminal history includes several counts of larceny, forgery, burglary and threatening.

Suzio said the inmate’s past is irrelevant because the focus of their interview with him was to determine if the risk reduction earned credit program is flawed or not. What the inmate is saying may or may not be true, he said, but the state should investigate. Both Suzio and Markley said Wednesday they thought the inmate they interviewed was credible.

Many of his recent crimes are petty as well, Suzio said. “If Dante wants to ignore the facts because she thinks this program is working fine, God bless her. But I’m on a mission to expose it for all the failings it’s got,” he said.

Markley said he didn’t know the inmate was listed on the state’s Sex Offender Registry at the time of the interview. But the information the inmate provided “I thought was very credible and believable,” he said. “I wasn’t there to judge his soul.”

For example, Suzio and Markley said, inmates can earn credits for signing up for a class, even if they aren’t able to take the class because of a waiting list.

“By waiting in line, they’re getting credits,” Suzio said.

By following an Offender Accountability Plan established by prison officials, inmates may earn up to five days a month off their sentences. Suzio and Markley said they were told by prison sources that inmates are encouraged not to follow through with the plan so they can continue to earn credits. They said that, according to what they’ve been told, inmates are no longer eligible to receive credits if they finish their plan.

Also, they were told that programs that inmates take part in to earn credits have been shortened from months to weeks. By providing shortened programming, “It’s not going to give you the same experience,” Markley said.

Suzio said the DOC and state officials are allowing the risk reduction earned credit program to be abused to reduce prison population and save money. In speaking with prison guards, Suzio said, “they told me they don’t consider it to be a safe program for the public.”

Mike Lawlor, the criminal justice adviser to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, said an investigation isn’t necessary because the program has proven successful.

“It’s not like we don’t know what’s going on,” Lawlor said. “We know what’s going on, and we know it’s working.”

Crime rates are at their lowest in four decades, and fewer people are being released early since Malloy took office in 2011, he said.

From 2008 to 2010, under the Rell administration, 25,205 inmates were released early. With Malloy in office between 2011 and 2013, 22,720 inmates have been released early. In that same time frame, there have been about 45,000 fewer arrests.

In 2013, the first full year the program was in effect, Lawlor said, the violent crime rate dropped by more than 10 percent. That Suzio is using information from a sex offender “absolutely affects his credibility,” Bartolomeo said. “This is the sort of person that Suzio has as his advisor.”

Suzio questioned how Bartolomeo was able to obtain information about the inmate he interviewed since he didn’t reveal any names.

“My question is whose side is she on?” Suzio said of Bartolomeo. “It seems like she’s joining Mike Lawlor in the cover-up of this program.”

Markley’s opponent for the 16th District Senate seat, Chris Robertson of the Working Families Party, said he also opposed the program in its current form. ..Source.. by Andrew Ragali Record-Journal staff