State correction workers have been raising concerns about their safety since the Bergin Correctional Institution in Mansfield was closed and a judge will be hearing those concerns in court on Friday.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union filed a suit with the hopes that the state will reopen the prison.
The minimum-security prison housed about 900 offenders convicted on drunken driving charges or those who were nearing the end of their sentences.
The state closed the prison earlier this year to balance the budget and the inmates were transferred to other prisons.
Union leaders say that's led to overcrowding, which has created a dangerous situation for state prison workers. Prisoners are sleeping on the floor, in gyms and, in some cases, people's offices, union officials said.
“I was in the department back in the early ‘90s, when we had the riots and a lot of it is due to overcrowding and closing the prisons down, and overcrowding the other prisons is a recipe for disaster,” Luke Leone, of AFSCME Local 1565 said.
Officials from the state Department of Correction previously said the state could absorb the 1,300 inmates from Bergin and the facility Enfield because the state prison population has declined by about 2,300 inmates to about 17,600 since 2008.
The first of many hearings in the case will be held on Friday morning in Hartford Superior Court. The judge will hear arguments around 11:30 a.m.
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