In The Life of a Connecticut Prisoner Vol. 3 No.4
by Richard Stevenson

Greetings, free world... for the last time of this year! This will be the last essay in this series. The next year will begin a new series of essays you may comment on—for or against. They will be titled Real Talk—The View of a Connecticut Prisoner.

You haven't heard from me in a minute because I've been recovering and trying to rehab on my own from worsening COPD. I've been trying to get to medical for about 3 months to get the doctor to see me about this and the chronic pain I'm having in my feet.

I've recently found out that many prisoners (including myself) as well as staff have been poisoned by the toxic gas radon with the full knowledge of the administration. This occurred at the previous facility I was at, Garner CI. Officers were informed about this issue in 2013. However, none of them said anything to the prisoners that were there. Some collected their workers comp checks and kept their mouths shut. I just learned about this from another prisoner. It appears that a family member read about this somewhere.

It turns out that the administrators knew about the high levels of radon before the prison was built in 1993, but kept this info to themselves, neglecting to install an abatement system that would have cost about $60,000. Now what will this all cost them? In the end, what did it save? What will it cost us?

This is why it is so important to make documents available to prisoners under the Freedom of Information act. I'm certain that these documents would have been denied to me, had I made an inquiry. You should make it a point to learn how to utilize the FOIA in order to look into what our governor is doing. It's easy to learn. Just ask your state Freedom of Information Commission for info on how to file a request and ask for a sample copy of an actual request that someone had filed. You are entitled to this. The FOIA can be used to obtain almost any document from almost any state or federal agency. Try it!

Rich