Legislators Consider Adding Nursery To Niantic Women's Prison

By Jessie King

Legislators are considering a bill that would create a nursery for infants and inmates of Niantic’s York Correctional Facility but the choice of where the nursery will be located is a difference of $4 million to $14 million.   

Four options are being considered, according to The Day newspaper, which said that the Department of Corrections is considering a range from remodeling the administrative building at York, which is the most expensive The report says that it would cost $7.2 million to remodel, $3.2 million to staff and then there would be additional costs of upwards of $300,000.   The least expensive option is to expand an existing mother and children’s halfway house in Watertown because the staff and the building are already there. 

According to the report, seven babies were born to  York inmates in 2012 and they were separated from their mothers. State Rep. Elissa Wright, D-Groton, a co-sponsor of the bill, and told reporters that “she and others were surprised by the costs but she thinks it is a good idea.” She said that both mother and child benefit from the bonding that occurs early on.   

The article says that aside from being pregnant, other requirements apply. The mother can only be serving a sentence for a nonviolent offense, be serving a sentence of 18 months or less, and have no record of convictions for risk of injury to minors, arson, sex offense, domestic violence or child abuse.