Case: State of Connecticut v. Jessamy

HHD-CV-03-0822418-S | Connecticut state trial court

Filed Date: 2003

Closed Date: 2005

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Case Summary

In 2003, the Attorney General of the State of Connecticut filed suit in state court against a group of eight current and former female inmates of the maximum-security York Correctional Institution in Niantic, Connecticut, seeking to recover the cost of their incarceration. The women had participated in a prison writing workshop, and with the help of their teacher and bestselling novelist Wally Lamb, published a collection of essays titled "Couldn't Keep It To Myself: Testimonies From Our Impri…

For more than a year, the inmates' attorney, Wally Lamb, and lawyers for Harper Collins tried unsuccessfully to get the Attorney General to drop the suit or settle it. Eventually the literary organization PEN, which champions the causes of persecuted writers around the world, became involved. PEN awarded one of the still imprisoned plaintiffs a major award sponsored by A.E. Hotchner and Paul Newman, which was accompanied by a $25,000 prize. When prison officials found out about the award, they suspended the writing program, seized all computer discs and erased writing program materials from the hard drives of the prison's computers.

Reports with the CBS investigative news program 60 Minutes attempted to contact prison officials and the Attorney General about their seemingly retaliatory conduct. Under the apparent pressure from the news media, the Attorney General agreed to settle the lawsuit for payment of $500 by each of the eight women writers, for a total of $4,000. Under the settlement, $3,500 of the money was to go to the writing program at York Correctional Institute, which the state agreed to fully restore. The remaining $500 was to go to the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

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Summary Authors

Dan Dalton (11/20/2007)