The native jail guard who was knocked unconscious and ended up within the hospital has shared his “scary” story, stressing that the state must cease medicine from flowing into correctional services.
Officer John Connelly remains to be recovering from the traumatic incident at MCI-Shirley final month when he was uncovered to a poisonous substance and rushed to the hospital.
This newest ordeal involving an injured correction officer comes because the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union continues to battle for safer situations inside Bay State prisons.
On July 20, Connelly had been attending to an unresponsive inmate of their cell.
“It was pretty bad,” Connelly recalled in regards to the inmate episode in a union video. “He wasn’t even responding to anything that we were saying to him.”
The jail guard then regarded down on the inmate’s sock and noticed a bundle: A bit of paper was wrapped up in a sq.. Connelly opened it up, and believed it was the artificial drug K2. He noticed some white residue, and shortly closed it up.
Connelly then remembers telling his associate that he was feeling weak.
” ‘I don’t have my legs. I don’t actually really feel that sturdy,’ ” he recalled saying.
Because the correction officer was checked out, he acquired actually scorching and sweaty.
“I fell out of it,” Connelly mentioned. “I don’t really remember anything after that… I could just feel my heart going crazy and then my mind started going crazy, and I don’t remember anything after that.”
He then awoke within the hospital, and was very confused. The physician advised him that he was going to be OK, however that it might take a while to get well.
“I was in pretty bad shape,” Connelly mentioned, noting that he had a number of seizures.
That is the second time that the jail guard has been uncovered to poisonous substances whereas on responsibility, the earlier time occurring in 2018. This latest incident was positively worse, he mentioned.
“It’s scary because it’s really affecting me pretty bad,” Connelly mentioned, including that he was quickly heading to see his neurologist to schedule an MRI for his head. “I just break out in uncontrollable shakes sometimes.”
“It’s hard to deal with my mental health right now,” he mentioned, noting that he was given Narcan 4 occasions through the incident.
Connelly has a child woman who he desires to choose up “but at the same time, I don’t want to drop her.”
Within the union video, he was requested whether or not he feels protected at work.
“That’s a tough question, man, after what just happened,” Connelly mentioned. “Sometimes yeah, but we work in a very dangerous environment, and I know sometimes we can be subject to this. But I just wish there was more precaution because I don’t want this happening to anyone else, because it’s not alright, it’s really not.
“I just wish we were more proactive on the drugs that are inside,” he mentioned, later including, “We go to serve and protect every day. We put our lives on the line because it’s not only about our safety, it’s about the people, the inmates that live in the institutions around the state. Their families are trusting us to make sure that they do their time and they get out.”
Following Connelly’s hospitalization and a reported string of comparable incidents, the general public security union is urging the Massachusetts Division of Correction to implement an “exposure policy” for when officers are uncovered to artificial medicine and chemical substances, together with fentanyl and K2.
“Let’s try to get all hands on deck to kind of combat this,” Connelly mentioned. “And let’s keep fighting, and let’s just keep climbing until we find something that works for both sides.”
The state company ought to launch weekly or commonly rotating institutional shake downs, cell and block searches and deploy its canine division, the union president mentioned beforehand.
“I will not let one of our members become a fatal statistic before the DOC leadership decides to act and work with this union to address these major safety issues,” mentioned Dennis Martin, president of the union. “Leadership is expected to make decisions.
“Currently, there’s a void at the DOC,” he added. “Neither our members nor inmates are safe inside Massachusetts prisons. As your president, I am asking the DOC leadership to implement a policy that will protect the courageous men and women of this union.”
Courtesy / Massachusetts Division of Correction
Officer John Connelly remains to be recovering from the traumatic incident at MCI-Shirley final month when he was uncovered to a drug and rushed to the hospital. (Massachusetts Division of Correction picture)
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