To alleviate overcrowding in Connecticut’s jails, the state Department of Correction is transferring hundreds of inmates to distant, out-of-state prisons. But that practice is separating some inmates from their attorneys while their court cases are still unresolved. And that is compromising the quality of representation for the accused, state defense lawyers argue.
In late January, for example, Old Lyme attorney Conrad Seifert scheduled an hour-long drive to Cheshire Correctional Institution to confer with his incarcerated client.
