Inmate numbers down sharply

Prison population near 30-year low

The state’s incarcerated population is on track to drop below 10,000 this month for the first time in nearly 30 years, a milestone accelerated by the global coronavirus pandemic.

Still, the drop in overall prison population — more than 2,000 people, or 16 percent since March 1 — is overwhelmingly the result of fewer prisoners entering the system rather than a sharp rise in releases, a Hearst Connecticut Media analysis shows.

The population of white prisoners declined by 19 percent, while the population of black and Hispanic incarcerated people has fallen by 14 percent, the analysis shows. It’s not clear why that discrepancy happened. Racial and ethnic minorities make up a majority of the overall prison population.

The state Department of Correction has come under pressure to release more inmates nearing the end of their sentences, especially those who are older or medically vulnerable to coronavirus. And the department has called attention to the declining prison population.

A press release Tuesday claimed significant increases in discretionary releases, and devoted six paragraphs to the release program, including comments from Commissioner Rollin Cook,

who said, “The impressive and substantial decrease in our population speaks volumes about the caliber and hard work of our staff, as well as that of our partners in the criminal justice community.”

The department cited a national report showing Connecticut ranked No. 6 among states reducing their prison populations between the end of December, 2019, and early May of this year.

But no mention was made in the release about a massive decline in the number of prisoners entering the system.

The department released 1,995 people from its sentenced population between March 1 and June 1, according to an analysis of publicly available data. It appears that an additional 138 that were released in that time period have returned to prison.

In the same period a year ago, 1,845 people were released and in the three months prior to March 1, 1,600 people were released.

The intake side is where the more dramatic numbers show up. Between March 1 and June 1, just 446 people entered the state’s sentenced population — far fewer than the 1,749 added in the same period a year ago and the 1,550 added to Connecticut prisons in the prior three months.

Department Spokeswoman Karen Martucci noted two policies that have had an impact on releases. In early April, the department created an exception to allow people to eligible for release if they had completed at least 40 percent of their sentence. Normally, prisoners must have completed 50 percent of their sentence to be eligible for discretionary release.

The department reported a 51 percent increase in March in discretionary releases for people with more than six months remaining in their sentence.

Additionally, Martucci said the department prioritized release for people over 50 with pre-existing health concerns.

“It’s work on both ends,” Martucci said. “You have less people coming into the system and more than would typically be released in the back end.”

The declines accelerated over the last two years. Nearly every month, the state has taken in fewer people than have entered the system, resulting in a decline in the prison population of roughly 1,000 per year leading up to the coronavirus crisis.

First state to halve prison population

It is expected that as the state reopens — and the court system catches up — that the downward trend will slow as more people enter the system. And although the sentenced population has continued to decline, the state’s pre-trial population began to slowly increase again in the week of May 20, as the state began to reopen

Martucci said the department is also nearing the point where the pool of inmates eligible for discretionary release is negligible.

The population of sentenced inmates over 60 years old was 521 on March 1, and on June 1, there were 464 inmates over 60 years old — a decline of just 57 people, according an analysis of DOC data. The population between 46 and 60 years old declined by 474 people in that same time frame.

Mike Lawlor, a professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven, noted that when the state drops below 10,000 incarcerated people, it will reach another important milestone: halving the state’s prison population from the peak, reached on February 1, 2008 when state prisons housed 19,894 people.

That would make Connecticut the first state in the country to reduce its prison population by 50 percent, and regardless of the fact that part of that reduction is due to a global pandemic, it’s still significant, said Lawlor, a former co-chairman of the General Assembly’s judiciary committee who headed criminal justice policy under former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

The declines accelerated over the last two years. Nearly every month, the state has taken in fewer people than have entered the system, resulting in a decline in the prison population of roughly 1,000 per year leading up to the coronavirus crisis.

“Almost all of that drop [in intakes] is in younger people,” Lawlor said. “This has a lot to do with juvenile justice reforms adopted 10-plus years ago and changing the way we are dealing with young people.”

‘Business as usual’

As COVID-19 has continued to infect communities inside and out of the state’s prisons, families and inmaterights advocates have implored the state to release more of the incarcerated population to avoid infection. Organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut have filed lawsuits to that end, asking the state for a plan to protect and release more inmates.

None of the suits have been successful thus far, and COVID-19 infection rates have declined. But the calls from activists have not changed despite lower infection rates inside the prisons than anticipated.

The system has seen 871 confirmed cases of COVID-19, or 7.5 percent of the average population over the last three months. As of Wednesday, 695 had been medically cleared to return to their oroginal facilities. Seven inmates died of COVID-19-related causes.

Melvin Medina, public policy and advocacy director for the ACLU of Connecticut, called the Department of Correction’s approach to release — with only slight increases over the normal rates of release — “business as usual,” and said that the reduction in intakes is evidence the state could reasonably reduce the entire criminal justice system with little or no negative impact on communities.

“We don’t have a COVID vaccine and COVID-19 isn’t going away,” Medina said. “COVID-19 is likely to remain an ongoing factor that the Department of Correction has inadequately solved to this date.”

Medina added that the discrepancies in the proportional decline of inmates based on race indicates a lack of planning by the department, and called on the department for further transparency in testing and hospitalizations among inmates.

“I believe the claim that their community is not at risk is not really based on any information that the public can analyze and verify,” Medina said.