The Connecticut chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a petition with the state’s Appellate Court to demand the release of a video that they say captures the 2018 death of an inmate at the Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown.
The ACLU is arguing that no one requested that the video be sealed. Department of Correction employees filed a copy of the video in connection with a lawsuit filed against them by the estate of inmate J’Allen Jones.
According to a statement issued by the ACLU, the DOC employees filed the video as proof they were not accountable for Jones’s death, but never asked that it be sealed from the public.
The ACLU of Connecticut asked for a copy from the court but their request was denied on October 4, with the explanation that the video “is under seal pursuant to a protective order issued by the court on November 13, 2019.”
The ACLU then filed its petition on Monday, and representatives said they hope the Appellate Court “clarifies that the video has never been sealed, and that it cannot be sealed.”
“As the sole evidence of what happened Mr. Jones at the hands of the Department of Correction, and as a court filing that has never been sealed, the public should have access to the video as guaranteed by state law and the First Amendment,” said ACLU of Connecticut legal director Dan Barrett in a prepared statement. “To be clear: We do not wish for anyone to have to view the video, but we believe that the public – especially lawmakers who are elected to represent the people of Connecticut – should have access to this video because it is evidence and has not been sealed. It is imperative that the people know what is being done in our names behind prison walls.”
J’Allen Jones, a 31-year-old inmate at Garner, died on March 25, 2018. Officials have said that Jones was having mental health difficulties and was in the process of being moved to a medical unit, for which a personal search is required.
Physical force was applied to Jones, including the use of mace, who was struggling with officers who were trying to subdue him. Medical personnel treated Jones and administered medication, but Jones became unresponsive. Jones was then transported to Danbury Hospital where he was pronounced dead, investigators said.
An autopsy was conducted at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and Jones’s death was ruled a homicide.
In August of 2018, Jones’s estate filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Correction and several of its employees for violations against his civil rights. The lawsuit claims Jones was handcuffed, surrounded and then pepper sprayed and beaten.
According to a 2019 statement issued by then-State’s Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III, his review found that the circumstances of Jones’s death were not criminal in nature.
He said he reviewed the Connecticut State Police Western District Major Crime Squad investigation, including the reports, statements, photographs, and the video recording of the incident.