Union Says Connecticut Ignored Health Risk of TB in Prisons

According to Connecticut Department of Corrections officials, 59 inmates and seven staff members at the J.B. Gates Correctional Institution in East Lyme and the New Haven Correctional Center have tested positive for exposure to TB since January. In addition, about 4,000 inmates and former inmates at the two prisons are being tested for TB, said Brian Garnett, a spokesman for the correction department. "From a public health standpoint, both the inmates and the staff as well as the general public are perfectly safe," said Dr. Edward Blanchette, the department's director of clinical services.

But a union representing guards said thousands of inmates and guards at three Connecticut prisons were needlessly placed at risk because of a slow state response to the outbreak. Union leaders and state Sen. Edith Prague, (D-Columbia) held a news conference Monday to criticize the Department of Corrections for its handling of the TB outbreak. Prague said she was disappointed at the response by Corrections Commissioner John J. Armstrong, who has declined to meet with the union or order any changes in department policy.

"Getting TB should not be part of a correction officer's benefits package, nor should it be part of an inmate's sentence," said Sal Luciano, executive director of the AFSCME Council 4, the union representing the state's 5,500 prison guards. Tom Sellas, a guard at the New Haven prison and a member of the union's executive board, called the department's response "totally unacceptable" and said staff training for how to respond to a TB outbreak has not been conducted since 1999. "It's a simple, basic thing to protect your people from infectious disease," he said.

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