Osborn Correctional Institution (OCI), formerly known as the Connecticut Correctional Institution – Somers, is a medium security state prison that includes a high security mental health unit for men of the

Connecticut Department of Correction The Connecticut Department of Correction (DOC) is the agency responsible for corrections in the U.S. state of Connecticut. The agency operates 18 correctional facilities. It has its headquarters in Wethersfield. History The correctional syste ...

located in

Somers, Connecticut Somers is a town in Tolland County, Connecticut. The population was 10,255 at the 2020 census. The town center is listed by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place (CDP). In 2007, ''Money Magazine'' listed Somers 53rd on its "100 Bes ...

. It has capacity of 1900 inmates, making it amongst the largest prisons in the state and one of the oldest operational facilities in Connecticut. It housed the state's

execution chamber An execution chamber, or death chamber, is a room or chamber in which capital punishment is carried out. Execution chambers are almost always inside the walls of a maximum-security prison, although not always at the same prison where the death ro ...

until 2015, when

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

was declared unconstitutional. It also housed the male

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...

inmates until 1995 when they were transferred to the nearby

Northern Correctional Institution Northern Correctional Institution (NCI) was a high-security state prison in Somers, in the northern part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. Until its closure, the prison housed the state's male convicts serving long sentences for violent crimes; ...

History

OCI was opened in November 1963, it served as a replacement for

Old Wethersfield State Prison Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England * Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Ma ...

, it was originally the state's maximum-security prison until 1994 when it was declared into medium security prison.

Notable inmates

Michael Bruce Ross Michael Bruce Ross (July 26, 1961 – May 13, 2005) was an American serial killer. In 2005, he was executed by the state of Connecticut. Connecticut ended capital punishment in 2012, and the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled capital punishment unc ...

, convicted serial killer, was executed by lethal injection on May 13, 2005. He was the first and only person executed in Connecticut and all of New England after capital punishment was reinstated. Ross was voluntarily executed after waiving his appeals. * Francis Clifford Smith, The oldest living and longest serving inmate in both Connecticut and U.S history, as well as the second longest serving inmate in world history.

References

Somers, Connecticut Buildings and structures in Tolland County, Connecticut Prisons in Connecticut Capital punishment in Connecticut Execution sites in the United States 1963 establishments in Connecticut {{US-prison-stub