No hunger strikes for Connecticut inmates, court rules

March 13, 2012

Hartford, Connecticut: The Connecticut Supreme Court, on March 5, 2012, unanimously ruled that prisoners who go on hunger strikes may be force-fed.

The case involved William Coleman, a prisoner who went on a hunger strike in 2007 to protest his sentence. He had been imprisoned for the rape of his ex-wife, but claims innocence. His weight dropped approximately 100 pounds over about a year, so the prison doctor force-fed him using a feeding tube in order to keep him healthy and alive. Permission for this force-feeding was first obtained through a trial at the Superior Court level. Coleman appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Coleman's lawyer, David McGuire, called the feeding "barbaric". "He will be put in four-point restraints, a tube will be inserted through his nose and into his stomach and he'll be fed against his will," he explained. Coleman claimed that it violated his First Amendment right to free speech, as well as his 14th Amendment rights to privacy and liberty.

The court decided that prisoners' rights can be limited to keep order. Justice Flemming Norcott wrote in the ruling, "Thus, the (Correction Department) commissioner has not only a compelling interest in preserving the life and health of the inmates in the custody of the department, but also a statutorily mandated duty to do so...It is clear that the commissioner appropriately sought to preserve the defendant's life using the safest, simplest procedure available."