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I'm Mark Sudall. Welcome back to Power and Politics. Joining me in studio now is Devon Ward, ombudsman for the Connecticut Department of Corrections. Welcome to the show. Hey, thanks, Mark, for having me. Yeah, nice to have you. Uh, as we've been talking about, uh, for a couple of weeks now, the 2025, uh, Conditions of confinement report, uh, has just been recently released. What did we find out from This report, I think the major issues in the report relate to sanitation and hygiene of the facilities, um, during the 2025 year there was a number of facility lockdowns that impacted programming, um, and the other major issue we found was a lot of significant issues with the medical, uh, delivery of medical services, mental health services, uh, in the facilities that were impacting. Um, residents and, and some in the state aren't too happy about this report. I, I think it's the first of its kind, and I think it's, it's a developing relationship between my office and the Department of Correction and that everybody's getting used to having an oversight agency and this report coming out annually and offering this kind of unvarnished look at the inside of our, our Department of Correction. So what can you say about the conditions of our prisons? Um, they need improvement, largely. I think, uh, the facilities could use a top to bottom clean-up. Um, I think that we are experiencing a significant, a significant staffing shortage in the state of Connecticut with our Department of Correction, um, and so we're understaffed, uh, which impacts, uh, all sorts of, uh, facility activities from programming, um, to medical care, um, and so that's significantly impacting the population, um. And um I, I would also say um the the other you know major issue we identified was was the legal services and the quality of the food was was were some other areas of concern as well, but I think there's a number of areas where, where we could improve. I mean in the short amount of time that you've been in this role, uh, there seem to have been a lot of developments in the prison system, um, everything from, uh, issues with uh. Prisoners themselves with uh security guards and uh correctional officers and things like that, sure, yeah, um, you know, corrections is a tough job and that it's, it's a 24/7 uh environment, um, you know, you're dealing with, you know, folks who, who can be dangerous at times, but you're also dealing with folks who are going through one of the toughest times in their lives and. Uh, it's important to, to try to have compassion, and it's also important to note that the majority of folks who are incarcerated will be returning home to our communities at some point. Um, and so it's really important that we try to create environments that are rehabilitative, that offer folks the opportunity to better themselves while they are incarcerated, so they return to our communities and are more productive members of society. Now you were uh appointed by the governor uh not too long ago, uh, approved by the state legislature, uh, what, uh, what do you want your role to be and, and I'm sure you definitely you're wanting to get some transparency, sure, you know, I, I think providing a level of transparency, right? I have, uh, what's called golden key access to every correctional facility 24 hours. Right, and so I can, I've shown up at correctional facilities at 3 o'clock in the morning at sometimes to inspect things that are going on, um, when there's a water main break, when there is an untimely death, um, I am notified and I'm able to be on scene and be kind of eyes and ears for, um, lawmakers and for the public, uh, in terms of transparency, but you know for me these, these initial two years. Really just in terms of establishing the office, um, getting it set up, you know, I went from being an office of 1 to now being an office of 6, and I'm hoping to grow that, um, you know, the, the state of, uh, Connecticut, or excuse me, the Department of Correction is one of the largest state agencies. 1 in 5 state employees are, uh, 1 out of 5 state employees are employed by the Department of Correction. Um, it's an agency that has a budget of almost $700 million 6000 employees, we have almost, um, 11,000 folks who are incarcerated, and so it's a, a monumental task to do oversight of that agency because of all those moving parts and so, you know, my initial goal these first two years has really been to, um, expand the capacity of the office. To be able to cover our 13 correctional facilities, we also have, um, a little bit over 2 dozen halfway houses which are, um, houses that are meant for folks transitioning back into society. Those are also under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Correctional buds and so, um, really to be able to provide transparency and some oversight to all of those functions requires me to. To expand the office and expand our capability, and so I've really focused on that for the first year and we are now trying to build the capacity to be more responsive in terms of being able to take complaints from the folks who are incarcerated and be able to have more capacity to take complaints from folks in the public. Now we hear about this in other states. Is there enough space in Connecticut prisons? Uh, certainly, I mean, so we actually, we've, we've reduced our prison population in Connecticut over the past 5 or 6 years, so we actually have a number of prisons that used to be occupied that are that are no longer operational and so, uh, we have, we have, you know, a good amount of capacity if we do see a spike in in incarceration rates, we do have capacity here in Connecticut to be able to house those folks. Um, I think we're, where we're a bit short is on the number of staff and that, you know, while our prison populations dropped, we've also seen our staffing levels drop, um, and they haven't met with retirement and folks leaving the agency and so we really need to do a better job in the state at recruiting folks, um, to, to these careers in in law enforcement generally, generally it's not just corrections, you know, we're seeing a shortage. Of folks being interested in being police officers, firefighters, and, and these are tough jobs, right? And so, um, I think the governor has a bill this this session to try to incentivize folks to, to become, uh, police officers, state troopers, firefighters, um, and, and I know the governor's in, in talks right now negotiating the contract with our our correctional officers as well. And so, you know, I've, I, my position is, is, you know, I really want those folks to be able to. Have some good conditions of employment, some, some great bargaining rights because it's a tough job, um, it's a it's a hazardous duty job and we really want them to be able to attract great folks to the profession and so I think it's not necessarily that we don't have capacity to house folks here in Connecticut, it's really being able to have enough staff. In about the 20 seconds we have left, would you say that the voices of folks who are incarcerated, are they being heard? I hope so, and, and I hope they feel that way, um, you know, I, I've endeavored in my first year to try to make it to every correctional facility throughout the state, and so I hope to offer a voice to them and I hope this report speaks to their concerns. Yvonne, thank you so much. Yeah, thanks so much.

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Do you know what your kids are watching on social media? You will under a proposal state lawmakers are considering. News 12 Connecticut's John Craven shows us what it could mean for parents and kids. Buffy Cottella is babysitting two preteens. This trip to the aquarium is a welcome break from social media. They're on screen so often. I know the older one, she's on like a Chromebook all day, and those sites can recommend harmful content to kids. It's a lot of peer pressure, you know. Yeah, so let's see if they could do something about it. Under a new bill, underage users would see a warning that social media can cause significant mental health harms. It would pop up every 3 hours. Also, kids could not receive notifications after 9 p.m. But some lawmakers wonder if the law would actually work. You're really sort of leaving it up to the social media companies to determine whether somebody is under 18. Yes, they can use facial facial recognition technology. They use the behavior of the individual on the platform. Parents would have to give consent for content suggestions. Critics worry about censorship. Unfortunately, a lot of LGBTQ kids do not come from supportive families, and they do turn to online. Spaces this bill is not prohibiting a minor from searching for the content they want to view, but is restricting the tech companies from using addictive algorithms. Buffy Kittella thinks kids will find a way around the law. These kids are so smart. Like I know the kids, they hack into, like they're in middle school. I work at a middle school too. And they hack into the school and they're able to unblock websites. Well, this law is based on similar ones in New York and California, but if it passes, it's likely to face legal challenges. John Craven, News 12, Connecticut. That's all our time. I'm Mark Sudall. Thanks for watching.

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Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scanlon and Ombudsman for the Connecticut Department of Corrections DeVaughn Ward join the show this week.

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