nothin Protestors Blast Transfer Of Female Inmates | New Haven Independent

Protestors Blast Transfer Of Female Inmates

Thomas MacMillan Photo

When Beatrice Codianni went to Danbury federal prison for racketeering, she was lucky to have her family nearby. She joined protestors Tuesday morning on the steps of New Haven’s federal courthouse to seek to afford other women the same luck.

Codianni (at right in photo with fellow protestor Barbara Fair) was one of a half-dozen speakers who railed Tuesday against the imminent conversion of the Danbury federal women’s prison to the Danbury federal men’s prison. She spoke as part of a protest rally on the steps of the federal courthouse on Church Street.

Protestors object to the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ plan — already underway — to move the women imprisoned in Danbury to other prisons around the country, in order to house men at the facility instead. Protestors said the move would be inhumane” since it would make it harder for families to visit prisoners, which would increase the rates of recidivism.

The move is necessary, the bureau has said, because of overcrowding in men’s prisons. A new women’s facility has opened in Alabama, one possible destination for the inmates now at Danbury.

A group of 11 U.S. senators, including Connectictut’s two, had objected to the conversion because it would separate inmates from their families, and because of the expense of the conversion. In response, the bureau postponed the switchover.

The CT Mirror reported Oct. 4 that Danbury would begin to move prisoners out on Oct. 7. Activists at the rally said an inmate informed them that 30 inmates have already been moved.

U.S. Sen. Dick Blumenthal said Tuesday that he has been assured that no inmates have been moved during the ongoing government shutdown. He said he is seeking a meeting with the U.S. attorney general to register his continued strong opposition to the Danbury conversion.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said the Bureau of Prisons is being pretty hardheaded” about the move and that it’s unlikely to change course.

The Bureau of Prisons’ press office, shut down due to the federal government shutdown, could not be reached for comment.

The prison had 1,337 inmates as of the end of July: 1,120 in a low-security facility and 217 at the minimum security camp,” according to a Sept 27 letter from Charles Samuels, director of the Bureau of Prisons, to Murphy. The letter states that the top five states Danbury inmates come from are New York, Texas, Virginia, Pennsylvania, DC, and California. Thirteen of Danbury’s prisoners are from Connecticut, the letter states. Read it here.

I spent 15 years in Danbury,” Codianni announced through a bullhorn Tuesday morning. Most people in the prison are non-violent offenders she said. Codianni was imprisoned in Danbury from 1994 to 2008, for racketeering.

These women are being punished,” Codianni said. They’re already hurting. Why hurt them further” by separating them from their families? Mothers Day at federal prison is the saddest thing you’ll ever see.”

Codianni, who’s from New Haven, said she was lucky to be imprisoned so near her family when she served her time. I had a prison in my backyard.” She said family visits were key for her mental health and success after release. They made it easier when I got out.”

Tamara Petro, of Branford, announced that her sister is currently imprisoned in Danbury for mortgage fraud. She held up pictures of the children of inmates, including her sister’s two young sons. She said two million children currently have at least one incarcerated parent. It’s essential that kids can visit their parents, both for the parents’ successful re-entry and the kids success at staying out of prison themselves.

She was a very involved mom,” Petro said of her sister. A typical suburban housewife.” Petro said she takes care of her sister’s kids five days a week, and visits her sister on the weekend.

In between speakers, protest organizer Gregory Williams (at right in photo) led chants: Prisoners’ rights are under attack! Stand up, fight back!”

These transfers should be stopped and the policy halted because they threaten to create more criminals and more crime,” Blumenthal said. Separating moms from their kids leads to isolation and a lack of parental guidance and role models and of course demoralizes the moms.”

The Bureau of Prisons very clearly knows where senators from the Northeast stand on this proposal,” said Sen. Murphy. We believe it’s very bad policy to have no women’s prison in the northeast.”

The United States has 20 female federal prisons, said Murphy. It defies common sense that at least one of them wouldn’t be in the northeast, the most populated part of the country.”

Murphy said he the ongoing crisis over the federal budget has taken away any leverage the senators might have to force the bureau to change its plans. The senators could attach a rider to a Department of Justice appropriations bill that would require the Danbury prison to stay female. But because we’re passing continuing resolutions [instead of creating a new budget], there’s no opportunity to draft language.”

Murphy said the Department of Justice promised to meet with him and Blumenthal before inmates are transferred. I’m fearful that they are going to come to that meeting and simply explain a decision they’ve already made. We’ll do our best to change their mind.”

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