Officials at the Connecticut Department of Corrections announced they’re closing a Covid-19 ward in a controversial supermax prison known for solitary confinement.
Criminal justice advocates criticized the state this spring when it sent inmates who tested positive to Northern Correctional Institution in Somers.
Claudine Fox, of the ACLU of Connecticut, said the prison’s reputation may have led inmates to hide their symptoms.
“This place that once was this place of fear and you don’t want to go here is now the place where people are supposed to heal," Fox said, "People naturally did not want to go there. And so the best thing to do was to not show corrections officers that they are actually suffering.”
The Department of Correction says inmates with Covid-19 will instead be sent to the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield.
