Kissel objects to inmates attending college at Asnuntuck this fall

Journal Inquirer

ENFIELD— Sen. John A. Kissel, R-Enfield, has raised very strong objections to an “outrageous” new program that he says will allow 12 inmates to be bused to Asnuntuck Community College to take free courses for the fall semester.

Asnuntuck is one of 67 community colleges nationwide recently selected by the White House to participate in its new Second Chance Pell pilot program, under which eligible inmates can receive federal Pell Grants to pursue post-secondary education while incarcerated with the goal of reducing recidivism after release, according to a statement on Asnuntuck’s website.

Other Connecticut colleges selected to participate in the program include Middlesex, Quinebaug, and Three Rivers community colleges.

Kissel said today that he spoke recently with Correction Department Commissioner Scott Semple, who explained that the Asnuntuck program would entail bussing 12 inmates, accompanied by one parole officer and no correctional officers to the campus on Elm Street to take courses beginning next week.

“I told him I can’t support him whatsoever on this,” Kissel said.

Kissel said the program raised a number of safety questions for him, including the lack of security personnel accompanying the inmates, the fact that Asnuntuck is an open campus, and ongoing construction at Asnuntuck’s new Manufacturing Center.

He said he’s also concerned about the safety of students and staff.

“There’s one guy watching 12 people,” he said. “What if one person has to go to the bathroom.”

Kissel, the ranking member on the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said putting inmates in the vicinity of construction materials and tools could also lead to security problems.

Just as concerning to Kissel was the precedent he believes the program sets in terms of policy.

Kissel, who said he supports re-integration initiatives, questioned the fairness of the program to law-abiding, middle class citizens.

“What do I tell people in my town struggling to pay for college?” he said. “We shouldn’t be rewarding bad behavior and now we’ve crossed that line.”

Kissel said Semple assured him that the inmates are “good guys,” with up to one year left on their sentences, though it wasn’t clear to Kissel what the inmates were in prison for.

Regardless, Kissel said he couldn’t abide rewarding people who committed crimes over those that hadn’t.

“If you end up in prison in Connecticut, it’s because you did something bad, or you hurt someone in some way,” he said. “These people did something bad. They may be exemplary inside those walls, but they don’t deserve to get a free ride to college.”

Kissel said that Semple told him the program would be evaluated after the first semester, after which Kissel said one of two things could happen — either something bad happened, and the program is re-evaluated or discontinued, or it’s successful, and the “liberal folly” continues.

“Where does this end?” he said. “Do we send them to (the University of Connecticut in) Storrs for a Ph.D.?”

Asnuntuck Community College was contacted for comment, and a spokeswoman said the college would issue a statement regarding the program later today.

A spokesman for the Departme