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OLR Bill Analysis
sHB 6463
AN ACT CONCERNING THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION, A
REENTRY EMPLOYMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE, PUBLIC
SAFETY COMMITTEES IN MUNICIPALITIES WHERE A
CORRECTIONAL FACILITY IS LOCATED, THE DISCLOSURE OF
RECORDS, THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA RELATING
TO AN EMPLOYEE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION AND
THE PROVISION OF DEBIT CARDS TO INCARCERATED
PERSONS AT THE TIME OF RELEASE.
SUMMARY
This bill makes various changes to laws governing the Department
of Correction (DOC) and related matters.
It codifies current practice by allowing the DOC commissioner to
designate a deputy warden to serve as director of reentry services.
It establishes a reentry employment advisory committee to advise
the DOC commissioner on aligning the department’s education and
job training programs with the needs of community employers.
The bill repeals the requirement for DOC to establish public safety
or advisory committees in municipalities with correctional facilities,
and instead allows these municipalities to establish public safety
committees. It generally consolidates the current committees’
responsibilities and reporting requirements into the municipally-
created committees and makes related changes.
The bill specifies that, for purposes of the state’s Data Privacy Act,
“personal data” must not be construed to make available certain
records concerning DOC facilities or Whiting Forensic Hospital that
are exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA). These records include security manuals, staff assignment logs,
and various other security-related matters (see BACKGROUND). The
Data Privacy Act, which applies to certain government agencies, 2021HB-06463-R000595-BA.DOCX
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establishes various requirements and procedures on the safeguarding
of personal data.
The bill adds DOC to the list of entities to whom the Department of
Children and Families (DCF), under certain circumstances, must
disclose its records without the subject’s consent. Under the bill, DCF
must provide records to DOC for the purpose of pr oviding
appropriate supervision and treatment services to children and youth
and determining their needs in doing so.
The bill allows, rather than requires, the DOC commissioner to
adopt regulations on the department’s lost property board. This board
hears claims from inmates seeking compensation (up to $3,500) for lost
or damaged personal property.
Additionally, the bill requires DOC to provide inmates, upon their
release, with debit cards for any compensation they earned performing
certain jobs. Under current practice, DOC provides them with checks.
By law, various obligations (e.g., taxes or court-ordered victim
restitution) must be paid from an inmate’s account before the inmate
receives this compensation upon release.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2021, except upon passage for the
director of reentry services and lost property board provisions; July 1,
2021, for the reentry employment advisory committee provisions; and
January 1, 2022, for the debit card provisions.
§ 2 — REENTRY EMPLOYMENT A DVISORY COMMITTEE
The bill establishes a reentry employment advisory committee to
advise the DOC commissioner on aligning the department’s education
and job training programs with the needs of employers in the
community. This must include:
1. the vocational education curricula used by DOC’s Unified
School District #1,
2. the types of licenses and certifications that employers seek in job
applicants, 2021HB-06463-R000595-BA.DOCX
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3. the availability of apprenticeships for incarcerated and formerly
incarcerated individuals in the community, and
4. the types of products and services that correctional institution
industries (i.e., Correctional Enterprises of Connecticut) should
offer.
Under the bill, the reentry employment advisory committee
includes the DOC commissioner or his designee, the superintendent of
Unified School District #1, and DOC’s superintendent of institution
industries. The committee also includes at least six members appointed
by the DOC commissioner, one representing each of the following:
1. an association representing in-state businesses and industries,
2. an association representing in-state construction industries,
3. the state affiliate of a national organization representing human
resource professionals,
4. a state council of building and construction trades,
5. the Governor’s Workforce Council established by executive
order, and
6. a regional workforce development board.
Additionally, the bill allows the DOC commissioner to appoint up
to three additional members who represent businesses or business
associations.
The bill requires the DOC commissioner to appoint a chairperson
from among the committee’s members. The committee must meet at
least twice per year, and at other times as the committee deems
necessary.
§§ 3 & 8 — MUNICIPAL PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEES
Under current law, DOC must establish public safety committees,
composed of the warden and representatives appointed by the local 2021HB-06463-R000595-BA.DOCX
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chief elected official, in each municipality with a correctional facility.
Current law also requires DOC to establish advisory committees in
municipalities with a correctional facility that do not have a public
safety committee as required. These advisory committees consist of the
facility warden and five members, meeting certain qualifications, who
are appointed jointly by the legislators who represent the municipality.
The bill removes the requirement for DOC to establish these
committees, and instead authorizes municipalities with correctional
facilities to establish public safety committees. Under the bill, each
committee includes the facility warden, or his or her designee, and
representatives appointed by the municipal chief elected official.
The bill requires these committees to meet at least annually, and
more often as they deem necessary, to review correctional safety and
security issues and offender reentry efforts affecting the municipality.
The facility warden must attend at least one meeting each year.
By contrast, under current law, the public safety or advisory
committees are required to meet at least quarterly. The former must
review correctional safety and security issues; the latter must discuss
inmate population demographics, DOC policies and practices, facility
programming, and reentry initiatives.
The bill requires the municipally-created public safety committees
to report annually, by November 1, on their concerns and
recommendations to the chairpersons and ranking members of the
Public Safety and Judiciary committees. Under current law, the DOC-
created public safety committees must annually report to these
legislators from the Public Safety Committee, while the DOC-created
advisory committees must annually report to the Judiciary Committee.
BACKGROUND
FOIA Exemption for DOC and Whiting Forensic Hospital Security
Records
By law, the DOC commissioner may withhold from d isclosure
under FOIA certain records pertaining to correctional institutions or
facilities under DOC supervision. He may withhold these records if he 2021HB-06463-R000595-BA.DOCX
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has reasonable grounds to believe they could pose a safety risk,
including harm to anyone or the risk of an escape from, or disorder in,
any such facility. This same authority applies to the Department of
Mental Health and Addiction Services commissioner as to Whiting
Forensic Hospital.
These provisions apply to, at a minimum, the following records:
1. security manuals, including emergency plans they contain or
reference;
2. engineering and architectural drawings;
3. security systems’ operational specifications (except a general
description and the cost and quality of such a system);
4. training manuals that describe security procedures, emergency
plans, or security equipment;
5. internal security audits;
6. staff meeting minutes or recordings, or any portions of them,
that contain or reveal information relating to security or
otherwise exempt records;
7. logs or other documents with information on the movement or
assignment of inmates or staff; and
8. records with information on contacts between inmates and law
enforcement officers (CGS § 1-210(b)(18)).
COMMITTEE ACTION
Judiciary Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 37 Nay 0 (04/05/2021)