By Lisa Backus
The Middletown Press, Conn.
SUFFIELD, Conn. — Two Connecticut prison inmates have ended their weekslong hunger strike, saying they raised awareness of concerns for the entire prison population.
Jacky Robinson and Cornel Myers, both of whom are serving life sentences at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield dined on veal patties and pasta with tomato sauce with a side of peas late Wednesday afternoon, after having refused to eat since Sept. 15 to protest conditions throughout the state’s prison system.
The food was good, said Robinson, who joked that he and Myers each managed to consume two trays after they decided to break the hunger strike.
“I’m very confident that there are things going on to benefit the entire Connecticut (prison) population,” Robinson said Thursday.
The two agreed to eat after Connecticut’s newly appointed state Department of Correction ombudsman attorney DeVaughn Ward intervened with correctional officials on behalf of the men during his first few weeks on the job.
As part of the agreement to end the hunger strike, Robinson will be sent back to Ohio where he originally started his prison sentence in the deaths of two men in 2003 in that state when he was 18. Robinson had been in Connecticut as part of an interstate transfer contract since 2017.
“The safety and wellbeing of all of the individuals under our supervision is a chief concern of the agency,” said DOC Director of External Affairs Ashley McCarthy in an email. “We are pleased that the recent hunger strike has ended, and thank Ombudsman DeVaughn Ward for his assistance in the matter. We look forward to working collaboratively with the Ombudsman to resolve issues facing individuals under our care.”
Robinson, 40, had refused food and was voluntarily only ingesting water and, for a period, Ensure protein drink, as a way of protesting conditions at the state’s prisons. He contends the DOC needs to provide more mental health and medical services and deal with continuous lockdowns, which he said hamper morale and make it difficult for inmates to access necessities, including showers.
It was his second hunger strike in three months. This time around the protest was sparked in part by the death of inmate Diego Velez-Serrano , who collapsed and later died in front of others on Sept. 14 , Robinson said. There were no mental health services available on the weekend to help those who had witnessed the death, he said.
Myers and five others who were in the same unit where Velez-Serrano died also went on hunger strikes, but the most of the men stopped after the DOC threatened to separate them. Myers continued on with Robinson even though he had been disciplined for refusing to be moved to a separate unit. Myers said Thursday he was hoping it was his last hunger strike. “I hope we can get something from this and it wasn’t done in vain,” Myers said.
As the situation lingered, state officials sought and obtained an injunction that would have allowed prison officials to force-feed Robinson, who has been vocal in the media about his concerns. He is slated to have a court hearing on the injunction in four weeks but believes that, since he has started eating, the force-feeding order now is moot.
The hunger strike drew the attention of Ward, who started in the ombudsman position on Sept. 23, and advocates and legislators including state Rep. Robyn Porter, D- New Haven, who went to visit the men and discuss their concerns.
Ward said the hunger strike was labor intensive for himself and for staff at MacDougall-Walker CI, but he was happy he was able to broker an agreement to end the protest.
“When you see two folks down in the infirmary in an already strained medical system for an issue that was an elective decision, you try to get it resolved quickly in a positive manner,” Ward said.
Ward conceded that staff at the prison have no control over some of the inmates’ concerns, such as medical and mental health short-staffing and the quality of the food being served, which is a contracted service.
But Ward said the hunger strike drew attention to those issues, which now can be looked at by legislators. “Those are legitimate and great things to advocate for but an individual going on a hunger strike may not get any results,” he said. “Organizing 30 guys to write letters to the Judiciary Committee would have an impact. I know the concerns were legitimate but that may not necessarily been the right way to go about it.”
Robinson expressed pride Thursday in the awareness that he generated with the hunger strike. He plans on continuing to advocate for prisoners in Ohio and Connecticut after he is transferred.
He was the leader of a gang who had great influence over other inmates while he was incarcerated in Ohio , Robinson said. “This time around I plan on using my influence for the good,” he said.
He wants to encourage other inmates to get an education and participate in as many programs as they can, Robinson said. He also wants people to see how much he has grown since the days he denied his role in the two murders, for which he now takes responsibility.
“Come to know me as a human being rather than the two acts I committed when I was young and disturbed,” he said.
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