Guide to York Correctional Institution - Niantic Annex, Connecticut

I was incarcerated at York CI from Nov.2009- April 2012. The 1st 19 months I spent in the SRP program which was at the time located in 2north. There were 2 tiers of the program, 1 tier for youthful offenders(16-18), & the last tier was the 18-23 yr olds. In the program we had therapy and at that time the warden handpicked the CO's so they were more "sensitive" to the 2N unit in general. I don't even know if the program is still running. I hope it is, as I believe it helped me a great deal acclimate to prison. My therapist (Dave) was a great help to me. However, on January 25th 2016 my beautiful friend/"little sister" Cassie successfully took her own life while residing in the program. That is something that I find incomprehensible on so many levels....the 1st being that part of residing in the 2N building, all inmate checks are done every 15 minutes as opposed to everywhere else on the compound(besides segregation)which are done every 30 minutes. I wasn't there so I don't know but I hope the checks were being done like they were supposed to....its not easy to take your life in there. I also heard from a few people that Cassie was walking around the compound with fresh wounds on her arms. So she was obviously in pain, cutting herself. I know my friend she was an attention seeker, not someone that ever spoke about or tried previously suicide! She wanted someone to notice and save her from herself and that prison in general failed her!! God I can see her smiling at my door after she made me my very 1st bagel poppa with pepperoni & cheese. She had a baby to go home to this time...... I wasn't planning on ranting about my friends suicide. There was another woman that finally succeeded I believe in 2014 after SEVERAL attempts 3 years leading up to her death. One time was on a court run with me! I came back from speaking to my lawyer and she(Sherry) was laying on the floor(which many people did so I thought she was sleeping)until about 10 or so minutes later she sits up....her face purple, swollen 2X it's size with broken blood vessels all over & says "it hurts, it's too tight, it's not working"! She had her bra around her neck and me and the other girl in the cell tried to untie it. Called for the Marshall & you know what he said to her...."you're not going to get away with these charges"! Asshole! That's not what she was doing....she really really wanted to die & I would too had I watched my "boyfriend" murder & then cut into pieces a crackdealer!! This is no lie....the guys ummmm appendage was never found! So she got 30 years,& nightly nightmares until the day she finally succeeded in ending her life from a guy she knew for 4 months! He got 60 years & did say she had nothing to do with it! In April I'll have been gone from there 8 years so in that time I'm sure tons of stuff has changed! For better, for worse who knows?! I heard the puppy program got taken away soon after I left which was an inmates fault for that. I know one of the case managers/therapists that worked at the Davis building got arrested on grounds for causing a ruckus or something to that effect. Ms. Trimachi at the Davis building was a great counselor and another big help. I had some good times in that building! My 37th bday was one of them! Ill never forget the women i met in there. There isnt a day that goes by that I don't think of the ones that I've lost.....5 altogether. 3 suicides (2 inside I told you about already), Madeline took her like at home after being out for 2 years. Then I lost Kayla to an OD about 2 yrs back & the most recent loss was my lovely, hilarious friend Melissa who lost her battle to addiction this past Spring! That hurt bad, especially since all services were private, same W/Cassie's..private. So it's hard to feel closer! Anyway, I'll never forget any of the women i met, good & bad!

Health care was deplorable. I watched 2 women die due to poor care. One was incarcerated for at least 7 years with a horrid cough. Eventually she arrested, assumably respiratory arrest, and was sent out to UConn. It was there that she was diagnosed with Stage 1V lung cancer. If someone has a horrific cough and complaints of feeling poorly for 9 months that I witnessed, a chest X-ray should have been done in the prison. They essentially killed her by neglect

My experience was half positive, half negative. I saw so much negativity, but good could have been shown more, if leadership would have been better. I went through a lot of experiences, even meeting death, it was not good at all. The abuse, in all aspects, that one endures is not healthy. I was never made ready to go back into a new world at all. Thee needs to be a lot of challenges. No one believes the inmates, not to say all staff is corrupt, but there is a lot more corruption in Niantic there is very little correction. I am not a scorn ex offender, I could have changed some of my behavior while inside, i was just made so angry at the way situations were handles and the way we were treated in there, it was unfair and inhumane at times. As if no one cared about the inmates, as if we were not human. The animals were treated with more understanding and empathy than inmates were. There were a few good wardens the years I was there, they never lasted long, too much stress and cruelty be done to the inmates and no one wanted that blood on their hands, the suicides the sexual crimes, there was a lot of stuff going wrong in Niantic. I just hope things get better for the inmates and staff as well. Better leadership, communication and empathy is needed. Inmates are still human with rights and all staff can easily become an inmate. Right is right and wrong id wrong. The judicial system needs an adjustment and the commissions of prison needs to understand that prison is to be corrected, not to be treated unfairly and inhumane. Training of officers needs improvement as well. There needs to be another female prison built and divide the levels up better. I served my time as a level 6 offender, so I served my time with murders, I had to step up my street attitude to protect myself in there. Where was the correction? Niantic did not rehabilitate me, I rehabilitated me after hanging up, I had to go home and I was never prepared for that. Thanks for listening.