Hartford — Through tears, former Connecticut Correction Officer Pablo Correa told a crowd gathered Monday how his incarcerated son was allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted by another inmate three weeks ago.

Correa said he last spoke to his son, Sergio, one week ago. Sergio Correa, 32, is serving a life sentence for murder at Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Montville. Correa was convicted in 2022 in the murders of the Lindquist family in a botched guns-for-drugs deal in Griswold.

He was previously held at Cheshire Correctional Institution where the alleged assault took place, his father said. State Department of Correction officials were looking into the allegations after being told about what his father revealed during a news conference at the Legislative Office Building on Monday morning.

"If something happens in here, know that I will fight to the death," Pablo Correa said, recalling what his son told him in the last communication he received.

Correa claimed the correction officials failed to properly report his son's sexual assault and took him to the prison's medical ward for photos instead of a hospital.

Correa was one of several people who spoke at Monday morning's news conference organized by Stop Solitary CT, an advocacy group seeking change from Connecticut prison officials over the use of "dehumanizing" tactics.

"I fear for my son's life at this point," said Correa, who worked for the DOC for 22 years.

His story and others left interim ombudsman DeVaughn Ward "shaken."

Ward, who as the ombudsman oversees complaints with inmates, said on the day he started, he had already received more than two dozen complaints from people contacting his private law office seeking help with the DOC.

"There is a great need for this service," said Ward, who spoke at Monday's news conference.

Ward said he had spoken with Correa and promised to provide him with an update on his son by Monday afternoon.

Barbara Fair, an activist who founded Stop Solitary CT, staged the news conference Monday to draw attention to the PROTECT Act, which she and others who spoke said was not being enforced.

The state law signed by Gov. Ned Lamont in 2022 limited the use of solitary confinement by limiting prison staff from holding an inmate in solitary for more than 15 straight days or more than 30 days within a 60-day period.

Human rights groups have criticized the use of prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. prisons, arguing the practice is inhuman and cruel.

The law also increased out-of-cell time for inmates to five hours a day and was supposed to strengthen connections to friends and family outside of prison by providing more phone and tablet usage. The PROTECT Act also calls for greater DOC employee wellness programming, which at least one former employee said wasn't being carried out.

Fair and others said in-person visits are marred by cavity searches, which inmates must undergo if they want to hug family members and that continuous lockdowns system-wide have impacted the required out-of-cell time and the ability to use phones to connect with the outside world.

"Cavity searches are disgusting and dehumanizing," Fair said, while pointing out that correction officers have been arrested for selling drugs in the prisons but no one conducts strip searches on DOC employees.

It's less about "safety and security" and more about "power and control," Fair said. "We have to stop believing that rhetoric," she added.

The law does not prohibit strip searches, which Fair is hoping state officials will ban. She also wants Lamont to make sure the DOC is enforcing the act.

"There has to be a culture shift," said state Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven. "We have to make sure people are safe and secure" without using inhumane tactics, Porter said.

Porter said she's spoken with DOC Commissioner Angel Quiros and plans to speak with Jacky Robinson Jr. and Cornel Myers, who have been on a hunger strike to protest prison conditions since Sept. 15. She wants all stakeholders at the table to discuss reforms that would get at the root causes of incarceration.

"I am taking the responsibility of going inside," Porter said. "If we are going to do this, let's do this for real."

The culture is so demoralizing that even staff need help dealing with trauma from what they are witnessing on the job, said former DOC counselor Kavenisha Boyd. "I will never forget the first suicide attempt I saw," Boyd said. "You have to stop everything and witness the act. I will never forget our conversation afterward. I will never forget what he used to hang himself. People are traumatized by the work they are doing."

Boyd is now in private practice, often listening to clients who work for the DOC express their frustration and trauma. DOC staff are suffering, she said. "They are saying, 'Do I choose my own wellness or do I choose my passion to help people and stay here?'" Boyd said.