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Guards, inmates ally against state

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Guards and inmates at a Connecticut prison find themselves on the same side of a legal fight against the state, which they say did not do enough to prevent their exposure to radon.

A federal judge last month ruled against the state’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit by 13 inmates inside the Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown. They allege Correction Department officials exposed them to high levels of the radioactive gas, creating unconstitutional and inhumane conditions of confinement inside the maximum-security prison.

A separate lawsuit was filed in state court in August by 16 former guards and staff members, several of whom suffer from respiratory ailments. It asserts the staff should have been informed of the radon problem.

“They told the current guards, but they didn’t tell the retirees,” said Lori Welch-Rubin, an attorney who finds herself in the unusual position of representing both prisoners and their former guards. “There was one gentleman who found out two years later that he had Stage 4 lung cancer and died four months after the diagnoses. Had he known to get tested, they could have caught it earlier and saved his life.”

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