Three Republican lawmakers Wednesday called for a public hearing and “full transparency” to assess allegations of poor health care in state prisons.

“Today we are asking lawmakers in this building to call for a public hearing in front of the Public Health Committee, to have full transparency with respect to the health care in our prison system,” said Senate Republican leader Len Fasano, who was joined by Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, and Sen. George Logan, R-Ansonia, during a press conference at the State Capitol complex Wednesday. Somers is the Senate Republican co-chair of the Public Health Committee and Logan is a vice-chair.

Fasano, of North Haven, called for the release of a report that could offer insight into specific problems in the prison system.

“In particular there was a report done by the Department of Correction in which it reviewed the 25 cases, including eight deaths, related to the health care — eight deaths of prisoners in our custody. The DOC has not provided the report. The commissioner, I’ve talked to him on the phone — he was kind enough to give me a letter to indicate that there’s attorney-client privilege.”

That report, which cost $63,000, is one of two outside assessments of prison health care sought by Correction Commissioner Scott Semple. Because the report might reveal the department’s legal strategy in future litigation, the report’s entire contents are exempt from public disclosure, Semple has said.

The Mirror reported earlier this month on the limited outside oversight over health care for inmates.

Fasano was joined at the podium by the mother of an inmate, Wayne World, who is suing the state, saying it failed diagnose and properly treat his skin cancer, which has since spread, for more than three years after he began complaining of a rash in 2012.

“Wayne wears inmate number 277511, and he has been in jail since 2006 on a manslaughter conviction,” said Carrie World. “Wallace and I raised Wayne to face the consequences of his actions,” she said, referring to her late husband, “but in serving his time, Wayne may have been given a second sentence of inadequate medical care that could cost him his life.”

Fasano made clear he wasn’t putting the blame on Semple. “I have a great deal of respect for Commissioner Semple. I think he’s a great guy. I think that these issues were not necessarily his issues.”

Fasano blamed a “no-bid contract” arrangement with UConn Health, which has provided prison health care for years. Last month the state announced it was shifting management of correctional health from UConn Health to the Department of Correction in July, motivated primarily by findings of a consultant’s report released Tuesday.

Fasano said he thought the power to waive the confidentiality of the report probably was the governor’s rather than the commissioner’s.

Either way, Fasano said, ” someone has to stand in front of this committee, have the guts to stand up and say, ‘I am not going to release this report, I’m invoking attorney client privilege and you’re never going to know the […] truth of what’s happening to the prison inmate health care’.

“And I’m gonna say that I think that a mom has a right to know what is going on, and every mother and every son and every daughter of every prisoner in our system needs to know that right of what’s happening to their loved one.”

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, when asked whether he’d consider waiving the confidentiality of the document, told reporters, “I’m not gonna waive anything that I’m not fully briefed on. A while ago the commissioner brought his concerns to me about health care. It’s led to a number of things that we’re doing at corrections and he’s doing in particular and we’re in the process of moving from one system to another and I have a lot of faith in the commissioner and his ability to get that job done.”

With the 2018 state and federal elections looming in the not-too-distant future, it isn’t too early to take a look at the record of a sitting state senator, namely Heather Somers, who represents Groton and on up the northeast corridor of Connecticut. Sen. Somers has done a remarkable job in so many ways during her term. She has made herself accessible in ways almost unheard of by conducting regular rotating coffee hours around her district and reaching out to constituents in need or just with questions about the future of our befuddled state. Somers has strong views (not all of which I agree with) but is not uncompromising or ideologically-driven like so many other candidates for public office today. She believes in the desperate need for state fiscal responsibility and for slashing unnecessary government expenditures and departments. She wisely points out that various proposed solutions to the budget crisis have serious ramifications. Sen. Somers also helped to save the Medicaid-Medicare insurance program for the disabled and elderly after the veto of the governor nearly killed it permanently. Her hard work, compassion and due diligence deserve recognition. Any prospective candidate who attempts to denigrate her for her political leanings should take a careful look at his/her own campaign.

Peter Wilson, Groton

Mystic — State Sen. Heather Somers, R-18th District, will hold a public forum and panel discussion about the challenges facing the state’s commercial fishermen, along with a viewing of the film “Fishing Wars; Drowning in Regulations” on Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Mystic Art Theatre in Olde Mistick Village.

The panel will include Somers, local commercial fisherman and various officials.

“Our local fishermen’s livelihood is critically threatened by overreaching regulations created by Washington bureaucrats who in many cases have never stepped foot on a fishing vessel,” said Somers. “Commercial fishing has been an integral part of Southeastern Connecticut’s way of life since before there were colonies. Local families going back generations have worked the sea to provide fresh seafood and feed the Eastern seaboard. These small proud family businesses are now on the verge of closing forever. I am looking forward to this panel discussion so that we can bring awareness to the problem, listen to first-hand experiences and work together to take steps to remedy it and help fishermen prosper in our state again. I want to encourage residents in Southeastern Connecticut to come to this free, open forum event.”

For more information, please contact Erika Pocock at (800) 842-1421.

Griswold Town Attorney Michael Zizka told state officials that the town was prepared to launch legal action against the state if it persists in its plan to build a state police firearms training facility adjacent to Pachaug State Forest.

“You may be facing litigation if you try to ram this project through,” Zizka told members of the State Assembly’s Joint Committee on Public Safety and Security, at a March 6 hearing in the Legislative Office Building.

He testified alongside Griswold First Selectman Todd Babbitt, as a packed house of local residents, many sporting “Save Pachaug Forest” buttons, sat in the gallery.

The hearing was called to address House Bill 5304, which calls on the state Department of Administrative Services and the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection to conduct a study examining all potential sites for the project. State Rep. Kevin Skulczyck and State Sen. Heather Somers co-sponsored the bill.

Zizka said that the state is violating the spirit of its own law by bypassing the Office of Policy and Management’s statewide long-range facilities plan. That plan requires proposed building projects to pass muster with the state Property Review Board.

But State Solicitor General Jane Rosenberg told the committee that the state facilities plan was an “advisory document” which does not impact projects funded by bonding. The DAS is planning to finance the projected $7 million cost of the project through bonding. The legislature has already approved a bond package which includes the first phase of gun range project, she said.

Both state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner Dora Shriro and Department of Administrative Services Commissioner Melody Curry spoke in support of the project, echoing the stance they took during public hearings on the project in Griswold in 2016.

Shriro said that recent mass shootings underscore the need to train state troopers in the use of long rifles and in situations that more closely mimic those they encounter in the field.

“The state police must have a training facility to prepare for these threats. Delays would cost the state more money, and it could cost lives, including those of first responders,” she said.

Opponents of the project said they agreed, but contended that the state is once again using eastern Connecticut as a dumping ground for undesirable projects, bypassing its own watchdog agency and spending money it can ill afford in a tight budget climate.

“The people of Griswold are tired of living in the dark in regards to this project,” said Griswold Board of Finance member Steve Mikutel, a former state representative.

He called for an independent agency to conduct the site assessment, rather than the state agencies.

“I do not believe that the DAS can be objective,” he said.

Several speakers who testified questioned the fiscal logic of building a new gun range in a climate where state grants to towns have been slashed to bolster the state budget. Babbitt said that loss of state grants to the town may spell a two mill tax increase for next year, despite a level-funded budget.

“The state thinks bond money is free money,” Somers told the committee. “Don’t be fooled by what you have been told. If you follow the square footage [on cost estimates], we’re looking at $30 million.”

The committee heard suggestions for several alternative sites for the facility, including Congressman Joe Courtney ‘s proposal to use the existing National Guard firing range in East Haven. State officials countered that the East Haven range was not available for enough training days, and surrounding wetlands preclude expanding it to include shooting scenarios required by state troopers.

Steven Douglas, of Save Pachaug Forest, suggested that the state investigate using virtual reality systems designed for law enforcement as a training tool instead.

“There’s no live ammunition and no gun range accidents,” he said.

After shopping the project around to 11 different towns in eastern Connecticut in 2016, the state settled on property on Lee Road in Griswold as its preferred site for the gun range. The property, a vacant farmstead owned by Lewis Button, Jr., who works for the Secretary of State’s office, is surrounded on three sides by Pachaug State Forest.

Local residents say that the noise, lead pollution, and traffic from the facility will destroy the ambiance of the forest, lower property values, and adversely affect the environment.

The committee has two weeks to act on the bill, after which it could go to the House for consideration and possible vote.

In January, Rep. Christine Conley, D-Groton, found herself with more than 50 postcards from patrons of Beer’d Brewing Company. It was part of a grass-roots effort to get state lawmakers to lift the limit on the amount of beer a manufacturer can sell to one person on one day, which currently is 9 liters.

At the Capitol on Tuesday, the Joint Committee on General Law heard several hours of testimony on House Bill 5036, which would lift that limit.

Conley, state Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, and Beer’d co-owner Precious Putnam were three of many at the hearing to offer testimony in support of the bill. The nearly 70 pieces of written testimony submitted were overwhelmingly in favor, but wholesalers came in person to oppose the measure.

“Why are we limited on selling a product that we’re producing?” Putnam questioned in a video Somers posted to Facebook on Tuesday. “It’s like going to a farm and trying to get eggs and saying, ‘Oh, you can only have 10, but you can go to a grocery store and buy unlimited.’ It’s ridiculous.”

Conley pointed out that many breweries sell 16-ounce cans. Nine liters is about 304 ounces, or 19 cans, so breweries can’t sell a full case of 16-ounce cans.

After receiving the postcards, Conley went to Beer’d for a tour. She heard about how the brewery had started offering matching 401(k) plans, and about its plans for a second location in Groton.

On Jan. 24, she asked the General Law Committee to raise a bill eliminating the limit.

The directive ended up included in a larger bill from Gov. Dannel Malloy, one that also discussed wholesale prices of wine, and bottling. Conley is co-sponsor of this bill.

The bill “is a bit controversial. We call it an aircraft carrier bill,” Somers said in the video she posted. “There are things in there that people like and that they don’t like, so we are going to push to have the microbrewery and craft brewery sections separated out and passed as its own individual bill.”

Somers also toured Beer’d in January, and on Feb. 8 she held a “Pints and Policy Office Hour” there.

“Each time you pass a bill like H.B. 5036, small businesses pop up in the wake,” Drew Rodgers, owner of Barley Head Brewery in Mystic, said in written testimony he submitted. “Not just breweries, but hopyards to supply the hops, cattle farmers to absorb the spent grain, and most recently, Connecticut’s first maltster.”

A brewery owner makes the trek from Massachusetts

Esther Tetreault, co-founder of Trillium Brewing Company in Boston and Canton, Mass., spoke to the Joint Committee on General Law about how Trillium has been able to thrive without the constraints of direct-sale limits.

Trillium has gone from selling 300 barrels when it was founded in 2013 to 20,000 in 2017, and the company now has more than 100 employees, growth Tetreault said is “primarily due to our ability to sell directly to consumers without limits.”

Tetreault has a stake in Connecticut law because Trillium is looking to build a production facility on farmland in southeastern Connecticut, and she said the 9-liter limit would significantly inhibit the business model.

Tetreault originally is from Connecticut, and she and her husband, co-founder JC Tetreault, got married at Saltwater Farm Vineyard in Stonington.

They have expressed interest in opening a brewery in North Stonington.

First Selectman Mike Urgo referenced them in his written testimony by saying the town has “a well known brewery from Massachusetts considering locating their operations here in town. This would be an incredible opportunity for the town and a great fit for the local area. Without this bill 5036 breweries like this are not likely to call Connecticut home.”

Wholesalers express opposition

Jude Malone, executive director of the Connecticut Beer Wholesalers Association, is troubled by breweries’ ongoing requests to increase how much they can sell.

In 2005, the General Assembly passed a bill allowing beer manufacturers to sell beer for off-site consumption. In 2012, a law passed raising the limit from 8 to 9 liters of beer, thus allowing for the purchase of a case of 12-ounce beers.

A 2015 act created a farmers’ market beer sales permit, and a 2017 law increased the amount of beer that could be sold to a person per day at a farmers’ market.

Malone feels that removal of the 9-liter limit would continue an ongoing erosion of Connecticut’s three-tier system of suppliers, wholesalers and retailers. She believes comparisons to Massachusetts are unfair, saying it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison because of different permits required in the Bay State.

Malone believes the impact is “a slow death” for wholesalers.

In Rhode Island, a 2016 law allowed manufacturers to sell up to 288 ounces of malt beverages, which is the equivalent of two dozen 12-ounce beers, or one case.

Jennifer Brinton, owner of Grey Sail Brewing in Westerly, said she doesn’t have a personal interest in seeing that raised.

“Our package stores have been extremely supportive of us since day one,” Brinton said. She added, “We have no intention of being a resale shop that competes with our liquor stores, but that’s because that’s our model.”

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GROTON — State Sen. Heather Somers, of Groton, will seek re-election to the 18th district in 2018, her office announced Thursday.

In Nov. 2016, Somers was elected to the Senate with 57 percent of the vote in her district, which comprises Stonington, North Stonington, Griswold, Groton, Plainfield, Preston, Sterling and Voluntown. Somers previously served as a town councilor in Groton for eight years, including two years as town mayor.

Before her public service career, Somers founded Hydrofera Blue, a division of Hollister of Willimantic and Manchester, which is a biotech manufacturing company employing nearly 100 people. She resides in Groton City with her husband Mark and daughter Grace.

Somers said it was an “incredible honor to represent the hardworking families, workers, retirees and businesses” of the 18th district.

“Our region is so critical to the overall health of the state and our residents face many real and pressing challenges — there is so much more to be done and that is why I am seeking re-election as the state senator for the 18th district,” she said in a release. “After the voters put their trust in me to represent them in 2016, I brought my outsider perspective as a leader on the local level and in business to challenge the status quo in Hartford, deliver results for our eastern Connecticut community and stand up to the insiders who continue to threaten our state’s prosperity.”

In just over one year in office, Somers said she has delivered results for the 18th district, such as passing a joint resolution that helped stop the Federal Railroad Administration’s proposed railroad bypass from cutting through Mystic.  She said she also led the fight to prevent an unpopular state gun range from being located in Griswold.

“I worked across the aisle to successfully pass a bipartisan plan to tackle the opioid epidemic that has caused such terrible pain in our state,” said Somers, who is co-chair of the State Senate Public Health Committee.

Somers said she has challenged business-as-usual in Hartford and “brought greater accountability to public institutions by exposing wrongdoing and demanding reform.”

She said she helped uncover a pattern of unethical behavior at Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative, of Norwich, whose executives had funded a $342,000 trip for 40 people to the Kentucky Derby in May 2016, and worked to bring greater accountability to the cooperative.

“I [also]helped expose a pattern of abuse at Whiting Forensic, a state run mental health facility, and am currently leading the fight to hold the Malloy administration accountable for the failures in process and oversight that made the pervasive abuse possible and encouraging it to implement reforms so it can never happen again,” she said.

She said she has provided a strong voice representing local industry in Hartford.

“I have also fought to protect our local assets — including Electric Boat, the U.S. Sub Base, our tribal casinos, our tourism industry and our local fishing fleet,” she said. “I have proven I can be effective when our community needs to fight.”

GROTON – Republican State Sen. Heather Somers, of Groton, announced Thursday she will seek re-election to the 18th district, according to a press release.

“It is an incredible honor to represent the hardworking families, workers, retirees and businesses of the 18th district,” Somers said in the release. “Our region is so critical to the overall health of the state and our residents face many real and pressing challenges — there is so much more to be done and that is why I am seeking re-election as the state senator for the 18th district.

“After the voters put their trust in me to represent them in 2016, I brought my outsider perspective as a leader on the local level and in business to challenge the status quo in Hartford, deliver results for our eastern Connecticut community and stand up to the insiders who continue to threaten our state’s prosperity,” Somers said. “I am proud that in just over one year in office, I have challenged business-as-usual in Hartford and brought greater accountability to public institutions by exposing wrongdoing and demanding reform.

Somers was elected in November with 57 percent of the vote in the 18th district, defeating Democratic opponent, former State Rep. Tim Bowles, by 6,348 votes — winning each of the eight towns in the 18th district.

Prior to being elected, Somers served as a town councillor for eight years in Groton, including two years as the town mayor. Somers founded and helped grow biotech manufacturing company Hydrofera Blue in Willimantic. She resides in Groton City with her husband Mark and daughter Grace.

Groton — State Sen. Heather Somers of Groton announced Thursday she will seek re-election to the 18th District in November.

“It is an incredible honor to represent the hardworking families, workers, retirees and businesses of the 18th District,” she said in a prepared statement. “Our region is so critical to the overall health of the state and our residents face many real and pressing challenges — there is so much more to be done and that is why I am seeking re-election as the state senator for the 18th District.”

Somers was elected in November 2016, with 57 percent of the vote. Before her election to the state Senate, she served as Groton town councilor for eight years, including two years as Groton town mayor.

She cited among her accomplishments the demand for stricter oversight of the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative, whose spending prompted a public outcry. The cooperative hosted all-expenses-paid trips to the Kentucky Derby from 2013 to 2016 for dozens of staff, board members, their spouses and other family members and municipal leaders. The trips cost a combined total of $1.02 million.

Somers also reflected on the abuse uncovered at Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital, a maximum security facility for patients who are found not guilty of serious crimes due to their mental illnesses. Somers, co-chair of the General Assembly’s Public Health Committee, organized a public hearing to elicit testimony from the hospital’s operators and provide a forum for patients and their families, employees and others.

“I am proud that in just over one year in office, I have challenged business-as-usual in Hartford and brought greater accountability to public institutions by exposing wrongdoing and demanding reform,” Somers said.

Somers said she also fought to stop a railroad bypass from cutting through Mystic and to prevent millions in proposed education cuts to Groton.

HARTFORD – Arrest warrants for nine employees at Whiting Forensic Division of the Connecticut Valley Hospital allege a repeated pattern of abuse against a patient last week.

State Rep. Heather Somers held a news conference Tuesday afternoon on the alleged abuses that took place at the state-funded psychiatric facility after a letter from the Public Health Committee, co-chaired by  Somers, was sent to the Commissioner of the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

The patient at the center of the abuse is a 62-year-old man who’s treatment orders called for a two-on-one staff to patient ration and 24-hour a day supervision.  There was video camera located in his room for patient monitoring.

Time line of abuse from arrest warrants: 

Nine staff members were arrested in early September following a state police investigation into the matter.

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (WTNH)– A “culture of cruelty.” That’s how State Senator Heather Somers is describing allegations of patient abuse at Connecticut’s maximum security psychiatric hospital in Middletown.

Sen. Somers co-chairs the state’s public health committee. She is calling for a public hearing by the end of the month on all matters concerning the Whiting Forensic Division.

Related Content: 9 employees of Connecticut Valley Hospital face charges after allegedly abusing patient

Somers is looking to address abuse claims that led to arrests of nine workers on felony cruelty charges.

“I think it’s imperative that we get to the root cause of how this abuse was allowed to happen, and why such a breakdown occurred,” Somers said. “To make sure that procedures are in place and adhered to so nothing like this ever happens again in the state of Connecticut.”

Thirty-one workers are also suspended in the patient abuse scandal, and more arrests are expected.