VICIOUS ASSAULT ON CORRECTION OFFICER AT OSBORN CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION HIGHLIGHTS FAILED LEADERSHIP IN CONNECTICUT’S DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION

New Britain, CT – On December 1st, 2025, a female Correction Officer working in the industries area at Osborn Correctional Institution was violently attacked by a male inmate, in an attempted sexual assault. The inmate attacked her from behind and dragged her into a camera “dead-zone,”—where the facility lacks any camera coverage. The officer was left to fight for her life, without back-up, against a male inmate serving 20 years for other sexual crimes. The officer, in her struggle to save her own life, sustained a fractured eye socket, as well as other significant abrasions and bruising to her upper body and bloodied face. 

Our Union has long identified the industries area as a critical safety risk. This is an area where large numbers of inmates work with dangerous tools and materials that are easily turned into weapons, without substantial supervision. Additional cameras, staffing, and security enhancements are urgently needed to protect the women and men tasked with maintaining safety inside Connecticut’s correctional facilities. 

Until about a year-and-a-half ago, two officers were tasked with securing this particular area of the facility, where dozens of inmates are working at one time, to prevent exactly this sort of violent assault from occurring. The Department of Correction cut the two-officer patrol down to one officer, to “save on overtime costs.” 

For more than a year, AFSCME Local 391 has been demanding action, including requesting that additional cameras be added and the restoration of the two-officer patrol in this area. Yet the Department repeatedly rejected these requests, citing the continued need to save money as the justification for refusing necessary protections for the staff who safeguard the institution every day. 

President Beamon of AFSCME Local #391, delivered a sharply worded response, emphasizing the severity of the Department’s ongoing failures: 

“This assault is not an isolated incident. It is the predictable result of leadership ignoring the warning signs placed directly in front of them. For over a year, we have documented these hazards, pleaded for additional staffing, and demanded security upgrades in precisely this area. These are not luxuries; our officers are asking for the basic tools required to go home to their families alive and uninjured at the end of their shift. Instead, the Department of Correction cuts corners, just to save a buck—and this is the consequence. 

When the Commissioner and his executive team choose cost-cutting over safety, they make a deliberate decision to put the lives of correctional professionals at risk. That is not just poor leadership; it is a moral failure. 

To make matters worse, it is only now that the Department has offered the very improvements that we had requested on numerous occasions, which they had previously refused to implement. This staff member was hurt because leadership refused to act. We will not mince words about that truth. These security improvements are coming too late, and we demand accountability! 

The men and women who walk into these facilities every day deserve leadership that values their lives more than a budget line. We are done being dismissed. We are done allowing preventable injuries to be shrugged off. We are sick and tired of an administration that places a dollar value on our officers’ lives, in the form of budget cuts. And we will continue to demand bold, immediate reforms so no more of our members are carried out of these institutions in ambulances.” 

Union members and correctional staff across Connecticut have expressed deep frustration with the Department’s inability or unwillingness to address long-standing safety concerns. This most recent assault underscores the urgent need for decisive action and a real commitment to valuing human lives over numbers on a spreadsheet or administrative convenience. 

AFSCME Local 391 calls on the Department of Correction to implement additional security measures immediately to keep our staff safe. We demand that the Department of Correction’s administration engage in honest dialogue with frontline staff and take responsibility for the safety of our officers, who have been put in harm’s way for far too long. Our union members deserve better from the Department of Correction’s leadership.