Nuttall's Story: Times Herald Record ~ Pawprints and Purrs

WARWICK -- A 17-year veteran state correction officer has been suspended without pay on charges of bringing in contraband and dealing with inmates.

His alleged crime?

Bringing bags of cat food to his job at Mid-Orange Correctional Facility that he and several inmates used to feed dozens of stray felines.

Christopher Nuttall, an admitted cat lover, said he began feeding the strays a year ago, when he noticed two cats hanging out at his prison post.

"People would just drop these cats off on the prison property and they would find their way inside," said Nuttall, who in his spare time rescues cats with his wife, Mary.

Soon after, Nuttall said he noticed one inmate secretly caring for five strays on his own. "So I began giving the inmates cat food."

After a year of feeding the cats, Nuttall was brought up on charges two weeks ago after a supervisor stopped an inmate carrying a bag of dry cat food. The inmate told the supervisor where he got the food and Nuttall was ordered to remove it.

Three days later, he was suspended without pay and charged with contraband and dealing with inmates. Now, Council 82, the statewide correction officers union, is taking the matter to arbitration.

"If the superintendent didn't want (Nuttall) doing this, he should have mentioned it before it came to this," said Larry Weiss, president of Local 2982 at Mid-Orange. "With all the problems we have at the prison, this is ridiculous."

James Flateau, spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services, would not permit Mid-Orange Superintendent Henry Garvin to give an interview. Rather, Flateau said department policy forbids public discussion of disciplinary action against employees.

"But if Council 82 wants to start publicly discussing notices of discipline before (arbitration) hearings are held…I will publicly release every notice of discipline."

Nuttall said everyone at the prison knew he was feeding the cats and he doesn't understand why his supervisors never asked him to stop. He said other prison employees pitched in to pay for some of the cats to be neutered and spayed. Some also donated money for food. Since Nuttall began feeding the cats, he said he has taken between 10 and 12 of them home when they were injured. He found all of them homes.

Before his suspension, Nuttall and his wife, who works in administration at Mid-Orange, were looking into creating a program where inmates adopt and care for some of the cats.

"We figured this could help the inmates adjust and learn how to take responsibility of a life," Nuttall said. "We've had some real hard-core knuckleheads with bad records become absolute mushes for the cats."