Plaintiffs counsel for a class of 9,000 Connecticut inmates used the Department of Correction’s own policies and procedures against it in securing a $40 million agreement over two years to have every inmate tested and treated for the hepatitis C virus.

According to plaintiffs’ co-counsel, solo practitioner DeVaughn Ward of Hartford, the “strategy was to show the judge that the Department of Correction was not complying with its own policy in treating this disease. Even though the policy was out of date, it says the DOC would treat inmates.”