Car horns blared outside the headquarters of the Department of Corrections in Wethersfield where employees who work the prison system held a “Public Safety Caravan”.
About 30 cars adorned with signs and full of workers showed up to voice their concerns. Shirley Watson, a social worker at Macdougall-Walker Correctional Facility in Somers insisted that inmates crowding in groups is prevalent — and that creates a danger.
“We need to establish protocols within the facilities where inmates are congregating,” Watson said. “We’re also still getting (inmate) transfers and that only increases the potential from the contagion.”
Bianca Stedman, a nurse and SEIU 1199 Union delegate who works at Garner Correctional in Newtown made a plea for more PPE’s.
“Particularly we are requesting the N-95’s which are more solid.” Stedman, who was undeterred by the rainy weather added, “we are going to keep fighting and we’re not going to stop.”
Sohrod Vahedi, a principal psychiatrist who sees patients at various state prison locations added, “these are unusual times and people are finding creative solutions, and we should too.”
