Supreme Court to Weigh in on Hunger Strike

A Garner Correctional Facility inmate and native of Great Britain is appealing a decision to allow prison officials the ability to force feed him and end his self-imposed hunger strike.

The Connecticut Supreme Court will take up the appeal in Hartford Tuesday, Oct. 25. At issue is whether force-feeding an inmate violates his constitutional rights.

William B. Coleman, 51, a former women's soccer coach at Central Connecticut State University, was convicted in 2005 of sexual assault in a spousal relationship and other charges. He began the hunger strike as a form of protest to his criminal conviction, according to court documents.

State prison officials maintain they have a duty to preserve the life of all inmates in their care – including showing that Coleman may be responsible for financial child support if and when he is released from prison; Coleman had other ways of exercising his First Amendment rights; that allowing him to starve himself to death would have a negative effect on inmates and staff and threaten order in the prison; and that there was no alternative to force feeding Coleman.

The inmate's lawyer, William Murray, of Hartford, who is receiving support from the American Civil Liberties Union, argues that Coleman's right to free speech and bodily integrity outweigh the state's interest; his hunger strike has not affected security at the prison; other alternatives exist beside the nasogastric tube feedings administered to Coleman; and international law prohibits force feeding a prisoner, who is deemed mentally competent and voluntarily denies food.

Coleman began the hunger strike in 2007, about two weeks after unsuccessfully appealing his criminal conviction, according to court documents.

The Department of Correction successfully sought a court order to forcibly restrain and force feed Coleman, who at the start of the hunger strike weighed about 237 pounds and shortly after the order was issued in 2008, had stablized his weight to about 150-pounds.

In September of 2008, Coleman resumed his hunger strike but this time stopped intake of fluids. About six days later, his weight to declined to 139-pounds at which point prison officiais ordered that fluids be forcibly administered. Eventually, a feeding tube was forcibly placed into Coleman.

After being force fed a second time, Coleman resumed drinking fluids, including nutritional supplements.

Coleman had been sentenced to 15 years in prison, suspended after eight, which means he is scheduled to be released from Garner in December 2012.