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1 March 22, 2021 lo/rr JUDICIARY COMMITTEE 10:00 A.M. CHAIRPERSONS: Senator Gary Winfield, Representative Steve Stafstrom SENATORS: Kassel, Kissel, Anwar, Champagne, Flexer, Haskell, Lesser, Sampson REPRESENTATIVES: Blumenthal, Callahan, Conley, Dillon, Dubitsky, Fiorello, Fishbein Fox, Gilchrest, Godfrey, Harding, Haskell, Howard, Labriola, Luxenberg, O’Dea, Palm, Porter, Quinn, Rebimbas, Riley, Simms, Veach, Young SENATOR WINFIELD (10TH): Good morning welcome to the Judiciary Committee Public Hearing for Monday march 22, 2021 I’d like to begin -- any comments from my Co-Chair or Ranking Member before we start. REP. STAFSTROM (129TH): Morning everyone sounds like we're in for a very long day today so let's hope we can keep on schedule here and be judicious in our questioning and hear from the public. SENATOR WINFIELD (10TH): Thank you Representative Fishbein. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): Thank you good morning all and I’ll say a lot less than my Chairman Stafstrom so, have a good day. SENATOR WINFIELD (10TH): Sounds good to me. All right we're gonna begin with the first person on our list which I see him in the room it's Commissioner Angel Quiros, Good morning Commissioner you may begin, you have your three minutes. ANGEL QUIROS: Good morning Representative Stafstrom, Fishbein, Senator Winfield, Senator Kissel and the Members of the Judicial Committee. I 2 March 22, 2021 lo/rr JUDICIARY COMMITTEE 10:00 A.M. am Angel Quiros, the Commissioner of Corrections. I'm here to testify on Senate Bill 1059. I've also submitted written testimony on this Bill and three other Bills before you today. It is vital for this Committee to understand the environment I have faced since I was confirmed by the General Assembly last month. I have already announced the closure of Northern Correctional Institution effected this July 1st, and I'm working to close two additional facilities before the end of the next biennium. Having you spent the last 32 years serving the Department of Correction, I'm keenly aware that the plea from the community of advocacy to close Northern have been voiced for years past. But I made the bold decision as a new Commissioner to close that facility. I'm here before you asking for the opportunity to prove to our staff that we can safely and humanely manage these and challenging populations at other location. Simultaneously to the daunting task of closing three Correctional Facility, all of the correctional bargaining units are currently in contract negotiations with their agreement expiring this July 1st. I'm also anticipating preparing for a significant number of additional retirements before July 1st of 2022 due to the major changes to the pension structure. I'm in the midst of training all Correctional Officers in the use of force. Use of force charges that we saw last year police accountability blog, as well as the last minute addition of the duty to intervene when excessive or illegal use of force is witnessed. I'm also moving ahead on my own initiatives to make the changes and out of cell time, length of the restricted housing status, and the use of restraints. I'm also overhauling the Correctional Officer training to include successful returning citizens to address staff, enhancing de-escalation techniques, 3 March 22, 2021 lo/rr JUDICIARY COMMITTEE 10:00 A.M. and emphasizing the importance to assist incarcerated individuals to support successful transition into the community. Finally, I am continuing to address the need for our additional health service staff to provide medical and mental healthcare to those under my custody. I'm doing all these things while moving forward with the COVID vaccination testing efforts and eventually resume contact visits and large scale programming in our facilities. These are all major endeavors and changes I must deal with while maintaining safety and security for the public, my staff and the incarcerated population, some of the proposals, some of Senate Bill 1059, are already been addressed by me and my staff, just maybe not to the extent or to the speed desire by the proponents. Re- establishing a Correctional Ombudsman Office, which assisted in my career is worthy of discussion. But this Bill is so perceptive, expensive, and costly in the minds of a very dynamic correction environment that I cannot envision any Commissioners being able to agree to and successfully execute them without major negative consequence. Give me the time to execute change to carefully consider policy, allow me the opportunity to lead the agency to shift a culture, hold me accountable. And close the -- I am committed to work with the Committee and the General Assembly on additional improvements, which can be accomplished safely within this challenging climate. That is the end of my testimony. SENATOR WINFIELD (10TH): Thank you, Commissioner. Representative Fishbein. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): Thank you Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Commissioner, how are you? ANGEL QUIROS: Good morning. 4 March 22, 2021 lo/rr JUDICIARY COMMITTEE 10:00 A.M. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): Commissioner, I can't find your written testimony. And I understand that you're opposed to 1059. And I understand the reasons. But what is -- I would expect that you had submitted something with regard to Senate Bill 972. Did you? The telecommunications services-- ANGEL QUIROS: Yes. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): Okay. And I don't believe that was addressed in your opening remarks. And, you know, generally in a nutshell, what is your position on SB 972? ANGEL QUIROS: I stated before, I'm not in opposition of Senate Bill 972, which allows for phone calls to be free for the individuals, but I'm currently on -- under contract, the Department of Correction is currently under contract that DAS administers in the negotiations not done by my agency. But I support the reduction of the cost and if the state can find a way to make it free for the individuals in my custody, I will support that REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): And what is, to your knowledge the status of that contract? I thought that it was a two year contract and I think the last time we talked about this it was about two years ago. So is that contract up for renewal and is being negotiated? What's the status? ANGEL QUIROS: It was some negotiations done in 2020 with DAS, and the cost of the phone calls went down four cents. The governor and his budget allocated, I believe was like $1 million towards the CSSD budget for the salaries of the probation officers in this country this current contract by senate for one more year so we'll be back out to RFPs sometime in 2022. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): Okay and do you know -- is DAS actively negotiating the continuation of that contract? 5 March 22, 2021 lo/rr JUDICIARY COMMITTEE 10:00 A.M. ANGEL QUIROS: DAS continue to negotiate and I think they finalize it and that's where it resulted in the four cents drop on the call -- for calls to the individual in my custody. That will go for another year and in 2022 the whole contract will be going out for bid on RFP. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): Okay and you mentioned that revenue from this goes to pay for certain services. I think you mentioned probation so am I to understand that when there's a cost for providing the service and there's a cost charged to the end user that comes back to the state? Is that basically the framework of the way it works presently? ANGEL QUIROS: So there's a -- the Department of Correction at the end of the -- each year will get $350,000 from the services generated -- from the revenues generated from telephone calls. That $350,000 will go back into the any programming piece. CSSD does have 30 to 40 Probation Officers that those revenues pay for the salaries, and then there was the technology project that's also funded with the revenues from these costs. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): So when you say funded from these calls, is it an enterprise fund? And what I mean by that sir is that it's all inclusive that if these calls are free, -- free when I say that there's no money coming back to the state as contemplated I think, by this Legislation will those positions and those programs go away? ANGEL QUIROS: Yes. The state will be forced to look at other options and how to fund those salaries they will have to look at other options and how to find the technology upgrade, and then they will have to look -- because it is free from Department of Correction they will still be an expense with the vendor. 6 March 22, 2021 lo/rr JUDICIARY COMMITTEE 10:00 A.M. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): Okay and I’m just trying to get to the -- my understanding is that the monies that come back from these calls they don't go directly to the lines that fund, they go to the general fund and then from there monies appropriated in the budget is a revenue portion in the budget, and there's an expenditure in the budget but it's not just like one account and by being clear here? ANGEL QUIROS: I have -- there is a statute that dictates where this money goes. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): Okay and you have to know what that statute is. Sir? ANGEL QUIROS: I will be able to get it for you and I’ll email it to you. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): Okay that would be helpful thank you. Okay I think that's enough information on that that's all I had thank you Mr.

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