Meyers said that, for the first time this year, state officials were forced last week to accommodate a rising prisoner population by housing them in gymnasiums and on floors at pretrial detention centers around the state, exacerbating already grave concerns about inmate suicides.

There have been five suicides by inmates at state facilities so far this year and nine last year, Correction Department spokesman Edward Ramsey said.

He said the department had averaged about four suicides a year in the past. The majority of those deaths happen in pretrial detention centers, Meyers said.

"It increases the workload," Meyers said. "I worry about the suicide" issue, "and the agency's worried about it."

But, Ramsey said, data show that the dormitory housing doesn't increase the risk of an inmate committing suicide.

"The department never compromises safety and security," Ramsey said today.

Inmates back on floors

On Friday, there were 100 inmates sleeping on the floor in plastic beds at New Haven Correctional Center, 60 in similar living conditions at both Bridgeport Correctional Center and the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Montville and 40 such prisoners at Hartford Correctional Center, Meyers said.

And, as of Monday, a total of 18,337 people, including 4,342 unsentenced, or pretrial, inmates, were incarcerated in state prisons, Ramsey said. That means that since July 1, when there were 4,220 inmates awaiting sentencing, the state's pretrial inmate population has grown by 122 people, or roughly 3 percent, according to a Journal Inquirer analysis of Correction Department statistics.

Those figures include prisoners facing federal charges who are being kept in state prison in pretrial detention.

Biggest sustained increase

The overall 336-person increase from Jan. 1, according to Correction Department statistics, and 187-person increase since July 1 is the biggest sustained increase in the inmate population since January 2003, when the prison population began declining from its high-water mark of 19,589.

Last year, the total inmate population saw a modest rise in the same six-month period, changing from 18,523 in January 2004 to 18,583 in July 2004. But by Jan. 1, 2005, the population had plummeted to 18,001. The dive in prisoners was the first decrease since 1994, when there were 14,125 inmates behind bars.

In March 2004, state prison officials said all but two of the hundreds of inmates who were previously in "nontraditional" housing had been moved into traditional housing, but Meyers' and other officials' statements Monday underscored changing conditions which have led to a return to the practice.

Correction Commissioner Theresa Lantz said in a 2004 newsletter that she hoped her department would never return to housing inmates on floors -- or in "nontraditional" confines, as the state officials have termed it. She could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Connecticut is one of just six states in the country that operates pretrial detention centers -- otherwise known as "county jails" - through its state Correction Department, Ramsey said. Most other states operate those facilities through county or local governments.

More beds needed

Meyers said the development represents something of an "anomaly," as beds sit empty in other facilities designed for sentenced inmates.

"With all the people we've been pushing out," he said, "all of a sudden we've got this spike."

In the past, the state shipped 500 sentenced prisoners to Virginia, but Connecticut was able to bring those prisoners back here as its prisoner population was reduced, Lantz said in March.

Moreover, Meyers said, easing the overflow of pretrial inmates this year can be done by reopening instate facilities for sentenced prisoners.

Meyers said Correction Department officials reopened the Trumbull building at Gates Correctional Institution on Monday to transfer sentenced inmates out of pretrial detention centers and free up beds. He said the measure should make about 100 beds available, and he hoped the department would continue to take similar measures.

Correction Department officials "recognize it's a problem and they're trying to relieve the pressure," Meyers said.

William H. Carbone, executive director of the Judicial Department's court support services division, said another factor contributing to the inmate increase is that space in the alternative programs that take many pretrial inmates is limited.

"Obviously the people can't be released until the recommended services are in place," he said.

Inpatient needs

The shortage in beds at inpatient treatment centers is particularly sharp, Carbone said.

"I have noticed a continuous increase in the wait list over the past few months" for inpatient beds, Carbone said Monday.

He estimated there are currently about 200 people recommended for inpatient treatment who are waiting in state prison cells for a bed elsewhere to open up.

State Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chair of the legislature's Judiciary Committee, said the recent increase in the prison population was in part due to a normal ebb in crime during warmer months. But he added that more prisoners should be diverted to community programs like drug or mental health treatment.

"I think almost anybody in the system would agree, you need more options," Lawlor said. "Putting them in prison is only the most expensive and least effective" answer.

Carbone agreed, adding that court officials have "a wonderful collaborative relationship" with the Correction Department.

The inmate population problem, he said, has more to do with "increased enforcement and a lack of alternative programming."

A March harbinger?

At least one expert had warned earlier this year that the state had more work to do to reduce its prisoner population.

Tony Fabelo, a Texas-based analyst for JFA Associates who is working with state officials, told members of a joint legislative committee in March that Connecticut still had to improve its inter-agency coordination to handle shifts in the inmate population.

Prison overcrowding legislation passed in 2004 was aimed at cutting down on overcrowding by streamlining the prison release process. But the bill also required the Correction Department to work hand-in-hand with agencies like the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the Judicial Department, and the Parole Board to implement re-entry strategies -- the very programs whose lack of availability officials said Monday were contributing to the recent increase in prisoners.

Fabelo recommended several steps at the hearing to avoid inter-agency confusion, including an annual analysis of how the inmate population is changing and better monitoring of how funding meets those varying needs.

He could not be reached for comment on Monday.

All of the officials interviewed Monday said increased police enforcement in some of the state's largest cities was affecting the inmate population more than the usual busy summer crime season.

"Hartford's got the big gun crackdown going on, the New London-area is really cracking down on drug dealers and gangs, and they've got some get tough stuff going on in New Haven and Bridgeport," Meyers said. "I think that's got a lot to do with" the inmate spike.

Lantz said Friday that she had expected the increase in the inmate population, and also attributed the spike to recent city policing efforts.

Meyers said the steep inmate rise happened with ominous alacrity.

"We usually see a spike every September in the county jails, but it's real early," he said. "This one here is significant and happened real fast."